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3Bb tbe author of 



HOLLAND OF TODAY. 
BRITTANY AND THE BRETONS. 
SOME OLD FLEMISH TOWNS. 
MARKEN AND ITS PEOPLE. 
THE FOREST OF ARDEN. 
ETC. 



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The Great Cloth Hall: Ypres 




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COPYRIGHT 
19 16 BY 
GEORGE 
WHARTON 
EDWARDS 






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t^milsM Solum tmd (SJmn 
of JfMm 



FOREWORD 

S^^HE unhappy Flemish people, who are at present 
flU much in the lime-light, because of the invasion and 
^■^ destruction of their once smiling and happy little 
country, were of a character but little known or under- 
stood by the great outside world. The very names of 
their cities and towns sounded strangely in foreign ears. 
Towns named Ypres, Courtrai, Alost, Furnes, Tournai, 
were in the beginning of the invasion unpronounceable by 
most people, but little by little they have become familiar 
through newspaper reports of the barbarities said to 
have been practised upon the people by the invaders. 
Books giving the characteristics of these heroic people are 
eagerly sought. Unhappily these are few, and it would 
seem that these very inadequate and random notes of mine 
upon some phases of the lives of these people, particularly 
those related to architecture, and the music of their re- 
nowned chimes of bells, might be useful. 



FOREWORD 

That the Fleming was not of an artistic nature I found 
during my residence in these towns of Flanders. The 
great towers and wondrous architectural marvels through- 
out this smiling green flat landscape appealed to him not 
at all. He was not interested in either art, music, or 
literature. He was of an intense practical nature. I am 
of course speaking of the ordinary or " Bourgeois " class 
now. Then, too, the class of great landed proprietors 
was numerically very small indeed, the land generally 
being parcelled or hired out in small squares or holdings 
by the peasants themselves. Occasionally the commune 
owned the land, and sublet portions to the farmers at 
prices controlled to some extent by the demand. Rarely 
was a " taking " (so-called) more than five acres or so in 
extent. Many of the old " Noblesse " are without 
landed estates, and this, I am informed, was because their 
lands were forfeited when the French Republic annexed 
Belgium, and were never restored to them. Thus the 
whole region of the Flemish littoral was given over to 
small holdings which were worked on shares by the peas- 
ants under general conditions which would be considered 
intolerable by the Anglo-Saxon. A common and rather 
depressing sight on the Belgian roads at dawn of day, 
were the long lines of trudging peasants, men, women and 
boys hurrying to the fields for the long weary hours of toil 
lasting often into the dark of night. But we were told 



FOREWORD 

they were working for their own profit, were their own 
masters, and did not grumble. This grinding toil in the 
fields, as practised here where nothing was wasted, could 
not of course be a happy or healthful work, nor calculated 
to elevate the peasant in intelligence, so as a matter of 
fact the great body of the country people, who were the 
laborers, were steeped in an extraordinary state of ignor- 
ance. 

If their education was neglected, they are still sound 
Catholics, and it may be that it was not thought to be in 
the interest of the authorities that they should be in- 
structed in more worldly affairs. I am not prepared to 
argue this question. I only know that while stolid, and 
unemotional ordinarily, they are intensely patriotic. 
They became highly excited during the struggle some 
years ago to have their Flemish tongue preserved and 
taught in the schools, and I remember the crowds of peo- 
ple thronging the streets of Antwerp, Ghent and Bruges, 
with bands of music playing, and huge banners flying, 
bearing in large letters legends such as " Flanders for the 
Flemings." " Hail to the Flemish Lion " and " Flanders 
to the Death." All this was when the struggle between 
the two parties was going on. 

The Flemings won, be it recorded. 

Let alone, the Fleming would have worked out his own 
salvation in his own way. The country was prosperous. 



FOREWORD 

The King and Queen were popular, indeed beloved; all 
seemed to be going well with the people. Although Bel- 
gium was not a military power such as its great neighbors 
to the north, the east, and the south, its army played an 
important part in the lives of the people, and the strate- 
gical position which the country held filled in the map 
the ever present question of " balance " ; the never absent 
possibility of the occasion arising when the army would 
be called upon to defend the neutrality of the little coun- 
try. But they never dreamed that it would come so soon. 
. . . One might close with the words of the great Flemish 
song of the poet Ledeganck: 

" Thou art no more. 

The towns of yore: 
The proud-necked, world-famed towns, 
The doughty lion's lair ; " 

(Written in 1846.) 

[The Author] 
Greenwich, Conn. 
April, 1916. 



dmUv^ 



PAGE 



Malines, and Some of the Vanished Towers . 17 

Some Carillons of Flanders 41 

DixMUDE 55 

Ypres ................ 65 

commines . ,.,... 85 

Bergues . . . ,. r., . :.. . ., . . ,. . 93 

NiEUPORT ,., . . ... 99 

Alost . . ., Ill 

Courtrai . 119 

Termonde (Dendermonde) . ., 133 

LOUVAIN ,.,.... 147 

Douai ,.,.... 157 

OUDENAARDE c ., . . .., . . 163 

Furnes . . 171 

The Artists of Malines . 181 

A Word About the Belgians , . . . ..■ . 199 



%\%t of IIlQsMons 

The Great Cloth Hall: Ypres ..; ..> .., Frontispiece 
Title page decoration 

PAGE 

The Tower of St. Rombauld : Malines ., . . . 18 

Malines: A Quaint Back Street . ... . . .22 

Porte de Bruxelles: Malines 26 

The Beguinage: Dixmude ., 34 

Detail of the Chimes in the Belfry of St. Nicholas : 
Dixmude ....,.,.. 42 

The Belfry: Bergues . ,., 46 

The Old Porte Marechale: Bruges 50 

The Ancient Place: Dixmude 56 

The Great Jube, or Altar Screen : Dixmude . . 58 

The Fish Market: Dixmude .,60 

No. 4, Rue de Dixmude : Ypres 7^ 

Arcade of the Cloth Hall ; Ypres 76 

Gateway, Wall, and Old Moat: Ypres ... 80 

The Belfry: Commines 88 

The Towers of St. Winoc : Bergues 94 

The Tower of the Templars : Nieuport . . .100 

The Town Hall— Hall of the Knights Templar: 
Nieuport . ., 103 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Tower in the Grand' Place: Nieuport 

The Town Hall: Alost . . 

The Belfry: Courtrai 

The Broel Towers : Courtrai 

The Museum: Termonde 

The Cathedral: Lou vain .. . 



The Town Hall 
The Town Hall 
The Town Hall 



Louvain . 

Douai . 

Oudenaarde 
Old Square and Church: Oudenaarde 
The Fish Market : Ypres .... 
The Church of Our Lady of Hanswyk 



PAGE 

112 
120 
124 

138 
148 
150 
158 
164 
166 
172 
190 



Wimn 




MtMn 



^B^ HE immense, flat-topped, gray Gothic spire which 
AU dominated the picturesque line of low, red-tiled 
^*^ roofs showing here and there above the cluster- 
ing, dark-green masses of trees in level meadows, was 
that of St. Rombauld, designated by Vauban as "the 
Eighth Wonder of the World," constructed by Kelder- 
mans, of the celebrated family of architects. He it was 
who designed the Bishop's Palace, and the great town 
halls of Louvain, Oudenaarde, and Brussels, although 
some authorities allege that Gauthier Coolman designed 
the Cathedral. But without denying the powef and artis- 

17 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

try of this latter master, we may still believe in the well- 
established claim of Keldermans, who showed in this 
great tower the height of art culminating in exalted work- 
manship. Keldermans was selected by Marguerite and 
Philip of Savoie to build the "Greatest Church in Eu- 
rope," and the plans, drawn with the pen on large sheets 
of parchment pasted together, which were preserved in 
the Brussels Museum up to the outbreak of the war, 
show what a wonder it was to have been. These plans 
show the spire complete, but the project was never real- 
ized. 

Charles the Fifth, filled with admiration for this mas- 
terpiece, showered Keldermans with honors; made him 
director of construction of the towns of Antwerp, Brus- 
sels, and Malines, putting thus the seal of artistic per- 
fection upon his dynasty. 

Historical documents in the Brussels Library contained 
the following: 

" The precise origin of the commencements of the Ca- 
thedral of Malines is unknown, as the ancient records 
were destroyed, together with the archives, during the 
troubles in the sixteenth century. The ' Nefs ' and the 
transepts are the most ancient, their construction dating 
from the thirteenth century. It is conjectured that the 
first three erections of altars in the choir and the conse- 
cration of the monument took place in March, 1312. The 

18 



The Tower of St. lionibauld: M alines 



ED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

r master, we may still believe in the well- 
. ..aim of Keldermans, who showed in this 
r the height of art culminating in exalted work- 
manship. Keldermans was selected by Marguerite and 
Philip of Savoie to build the "Greatest Church in Eu- 
rope," and the plans, drawn with the pen on large sheets 
of parchment pasted together, which were preserved in 
the Brussels Museum up to the outbreak of the war, 
show what a wonder it was to have been. These plans, 
show the spire complete, but the project was never real- 
ized. 

Charles the Fifth, filled with admiration for this mas- 
terpiece, showered Keldermans with honors; made him 
director of construction of the towns of Antwerp, Brus- 
sels, and Malines, putting thus the seal of artistic per- 
fection upon his dynasty. 

Historical documents in the Brussels Library contained 
the following: 

" The precise origin of the commencements of the Ca- 
thedral of Malines is unknown, as the ancient records 
were destroyed, together with the archives, during the 
troubles in the sixteenth century. The ' Nefs ' and the 
transepts are the most ancient, their construction dating 
from the thirteenth century. It is conjectured that the 
hree erections of altars in the choir and the conse- 
on of the monument took place in March, 1312. The 
18 



■A^sNiSnM. -.WMMiSwoiV A't \o -t^'Mo'V tjsVY 




. .^|R«».».^ ^ f|''ii>«i)i. 



MALINES 

great conflagration of May, 1342, which destroyed nearly 
all of the town, spared the church itself, but consumed 
the entire roof of heavy beams of Norway pine. The 
ruins remained thus for a long period because of lack of 
funds for restoration, and in the meantime services were 
celebrated in the church of St. Catherine. It was not un- 
til 1366 that the cathedral was sufficiently repaired to be 
used by the canons. Once begun, however, the repairs 
continued, although slowly. But the tower remained un- 
completed as it was at the outbreak of the Great War, 
standing above the square at the great height of 97.70 
metres." On each face of the tower was a large open- 
work clock face, or " cadran," of gilded copper. Each 
face was forty-seven feet in diameter. These clock faces 
were the work of Jacques Willmore, an Englishman by 
birth, but a habitant of Malines, and cost the town the 
sum of ten thousand francs ($2000) . The citizens so 
appreciated his work that the council awarded him a 
pension of two hundred florins, " which he enjoyed for 
fourteen years." 

St. Rombauld was famous for its chime of forty-five 
bells of remarkable silvery quality : masterpieces of Flem- 
ish bell founding. Malines was for many hundreds of 
years the headquarters of bell founding. Of the master 
bell founders, the most celebrated, according to the arch- 
ives, was Jean Zeelstman, who practised his art for thirty 

19 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

years. He made, in 1446, for the ancient church of Saint 
Michel at Louvain (destroyed by the Vandals in 1914) 
a large bell, bearing the inscription : " Michael pre- 
positus paradisi quem nonoripicant angelorum civis f usa 
per Johann Zeelstman anno dmi, m. ccc. xlvi." 

The family of Waghemans furnished a great number 
of bell founders of renown, who made many of the bells 
in the carillon of the cathedral of St. Rombauld; and 
there was lastly the Van den Gheyns (or Ghein) , of which 
William of Bois-le-Duc became " Bourgeoisie " (Burg- 
ess) of Malines in 1506. His son Pierre succeeded to 
his business in 1533, and in turn left a son Pierre II, who 
carried on the great repute of his father. The tower 
of the Hospice of Notre Dame contained in 1914 a re- 
markable old bell of clear mellow tone — bearing the in- 
scription : " Peeter Van den Ghein heeft mi Ghegotten 
in't jaer M.D. LXXX VIII." On the lower rim were 
the words : " Campana Sancti spiritus Divi Rimilodi." 
Pierre Van den Ghein II had but one son, Pierre III, who 
died without issue in 1618. William, however, left a 
second son, from whom descended the line of later bell 
founders, who made many of the bells of Malines. Of 
these Pierre IV, who associated himself with Pierre de 
Clerck (a cousin german) , made the great " bourdon " 
called Salvator. 

During the later years of the seventeenth century, the 
20 



MALINES 

Van den Gheyns seem to have quitted the town, seeking 
their fortunes elsewhere, for the foundry passed into 
other and less competent hands. 

In Malines dwelt the Primate of Belgium, the now cele- 
brated Cardinal Mercier, whose courageous attitude in 
the face of the invaders has aroused the admiration of the 
whole civilized world. Malines, although near Brussels, 
had, up to the outbreak of the war and its subsequent 
ruin, perhaps better preserved its characteristics than 
more remote towns of Flanders. The market place was 
surrounded by purely Flemish gabled houses of grayish 
stucco and stone, and these were most charmingly here 
and there reflected in the sluggish water of the rather evil- 
smelling river Dyle. 

Catholicism was a most powerful factor here, and the 
struggle between Luther and Loyola, separating the an- 
cient from the modern in Flemish architecture, was no- 
where better exemplified than in Malines. It has been 
said that the modern Jesuitism succeeded to the ancient 
mysticism without displacing it, and the installation of 
the first in the very sanctuary of the latter has manifested 
itself in the ornamentation of the ecclesiastical edifices 
throughout Flanders, and indeed this fact is very evident 
to the travelers in this region. The people of Malines 
jealously retained the integrity of their ancient tongue, 
and many books in the language were published here. 

21 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

Associations abounded in the town banded together for 
the preservation of Flemish as a language. On fete days 
these companies, headed by bands of music, paraded the 
streets, bearing large silken banners on which, with the 
Lion of Flanders, were inscriptions such as " Flanders for 
the Flemish," and " JIail to our Flemish Lion." On these 
occasions, too, the chimes in St. Rombauld were played 
by a celebrated bell-ringer, while the square below the 
tower was black with people listening breathlessly to the 
songs of their forefathers, often joining in the chorus, the 
sounds of the voices carrying a long distance. On the 
opposite side of the square, in the center of which was a 
fine statue of Margaret of Austria, adjoining the recently 
restored " Halles," a fine building in the purest Renais- 
sance was being constructed, certainly a credit to the 
town, and an honor to its architect, attesting as it did 
the artistic sense and prosperity of the people. This, too, 
lies now in ashes — alas ! 

Flanders fairly bloomed, if I may use the expression, 
with exquisite architecture, and this garden spot, this 
cradle of art, as it has well been called, is levelled now in 
heaps of shapeless ruin. 

Certainly in this damp, low-lying country the Gothic 
style flourished amazingly, and brought into existence 
talent which produced many cathedrals, town halls, and 
gateways, the like of which were not to be found else- 

22 




M alines: A Quaint Back Street 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

'lounded in the town banded together for 

J jn of Flemish as a language. On fete days 

these companies, headed by bands of music, paraded the 
streets, bearing large silken banners on which, with the 
Lion ' ' " ' rs, were inscriptions such as " Flanders for 

theFi- and " jHail to our Flemish Lion." On these 

occasions, too, the chimes in St. Rombauld were played 
celebrated bell-ringer, while the square below the 
tower was black with people listening breathlessly to the 
songs of their forefathers, often joining in the chorus, the 
sounds of the voices carrying a long distance. On the 
opposite side of the square, in the center of which was a 
fine statue of Margaret of Austria, adjoining the recently 
restored " Halles," a fine building in the purest Renais- 
sance was being constructed, certainly a credit to the 
town, and an honor to its architect, attesting as it did 
the artistic sense and prosperity of the people. This, too, 
lies now in ashes — alas I 

Flanders fairly bloomed, if I may use the expression, 
with exquisite architecture, and this garden spot, this 
cradle of art, as it has well been called, is levelled now in 
heaps of shapeless ruin. 

Certainly in this damp, low-lying country the Gothic 
style flourished amazingly, and brought into existence 
talent which produced many cathedrals, town halls, and 
gateways, the like of which were not to be found else- 



J3"i-vVA •^•i«5i isvjftvs^ k ■. i^svs^s^M. 




■^riiimi III! 11^' . 



MALINES 

where in Europe. These buildings, ornamented with 
lace-like traceries and crowded with statuary, their in- 
teriors embellished with choir screens of marvelous detail 
wrought in stone, preserved to the world the art of a half- 
forgotten past, and these works of incomparable art were 
being cared for and restored by the State for the benefit 
of the whole world. Here, too, in Malines was a most 
quaint " Beguinage," or asylum, in an old quarter of the 
town, hidden away amid a network of narrow streets: 
a community of gentle-mannered, placid-faced women, 
who dwelt in a semi-religious retirement after the ancient 
rules laid down by Sainte Begga, in little, low, red-roofed 
houses ranged all about a grass-grown square. Here, 
after depositing a considerable sum of money, they were 
permitted to live in groups of three and four in each 
house, each coming and going as she pleased, without tak- 
ing any formal vow. Their days were given up to church, 
hospital, parish duties and work among the sick and 
needy: an order, by the way, not found outside of 
Flanders. 

Each day brought for them a monotonous existence, the 
same duties at the same hours, waking in a gentle quie- 
tude, rhythmed by the silvery notes of the convent bell 
recalling them to the duties of their pious lives, all oblivi- 
ous of the great outside world. Each Beguinage door 
bore the name of some saint, and often in a moss-covered 

23 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

niche in the old walls was seen a small statue of some 
saint, or holy personage, draped in vines. 

The heavy, barred door was nail studded, and furnished 
usually with an iron-grilled wicket, where at the sound 
of the bell of the visitor a panel slid back and a white- 
coiff ed face appeared. This secluded quarter was not ex- 
clusively inhabited by these gentle women, for there were 
other dwellings for those that loved the quiet solitude of 
this end of the town. 

The Malines Beguinage was suppressed by the authori- 
ties in 1798, and it was not until 1804 that the order was 
permitted to resume operations under their former rights, 
nor were they allowed to resume their quaint costume 
until the year 1814. 

In the small church on my last visit I saw the portrait 
of the Beguine Catherine Van Halter, the work of the 
painter I. Cossiers, and another picture by him represent- 
ing the dead Christ on the knees of the Virgin surrounded 
by disciples. Cossiers seemed to revel in the ghastliness 
of the scene, but the workmanship was certainly of a very 
high order. The Beguine showed me with much pride 
their great treasure, a tiny, six-inch figure of the Cruci- 
fixion, carved from one piece of ivory by Jerome due 
Quesnoy. It was of very admirable workmanship, 
the face being remarkable in expression. Despatches 
(March, 1916) report this Beguinage entirely destroyed 

24 



MALINES 

by the siege guns. One wonders what was the fate of 
the saintly women. 

On the Place de la Boucherie in Malines was the old 
" Palais," which was used as a museum and contained 
many ill-assorted objects of the greatest interest and 
value, such as medals, embroideries, weapons, and a fine 
collection of ancient miniatures on ivory. There was 
also a great iron "Armoire Aux Chartes," quite filled 
with priceless parchments, great vellum tomes, bound in 
brass; large waxen seals of dead and gone rulers and 
nobles; heavy volumes bound in leather, containing the 
archives. And also a most curious strong box bound 
in iron bands, nail studded, and with immense locks 
and keys, upon which reclined a strange, wooden figure 
with a grinning face, clad in the moth-eaten ancient 
dress of Malines, representing " Op Signorken " (the 
card states) , but the attendant told me it was the " Vuyle 
Bridegroom," and related a story of it which cannot be 
set down here, Flemish ideas and speech being rather 
freer than ours. But the people, or rather the peasants, 
are devoted to him, and there were occasions when he was 
borne in triumph in processions when the town was " en 
fete." 

The ancient palace of Margaret of York, wife of 
Charles the Bold, who after the tragic death of her con- 
sort retired to Malines, was in the Rue de I'Empereur. 

25 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

It was used latterly as the hospital, and was utterly de- 
stroyed in the bombardment of 1914. 

The only remnant of the ancient fortifications, I found 
on my last visit in 19 10, was the fine gate, the " Porte de 
Bruxelles," with a small section of the walls, all reflected 
in an old moat now overgrown with moss and sedge 
grass. There were, too, quaint vistas of the old tower of 
Our Lady of Hanswyk and a number of arched bridges 
along the banks of the yellow Dyle, which flows slug- 
gishly through the old town. 

On the " Quai-au-sel," I saw in 1910, a number of an- 
cient fagades, most picturesque and quaintly pinnacled. 
There also a small botanical garden floriated most luxuri- 
antly, and here again the Dyle reflected the mossy walls 
of ancient stone palaces, and there were rows of tall, 
wooden, carved posts standing in the stream, to which 
boats were moored as in Venice. 

Throughout the town, up to the time of the bombard- 
ment, were many quaint market-places, all grass grown, 
wherein on market days were tall-wheeled, peasant carts, 
and lines of huge, hollow-backed, thick-legged, hairy 
horses, which were being offered for sale. And there 
were innumerable fountains and tall iron pumps of 
knights in armor; forgotten heroes of bygone ages, all of 
great artistic merit and value ; and over all was the dom- 
inating tower of St. Rombauld, vast, gray, and myste- 

26 



I'orte de Bruxcllcs: M alines 



ate, the " Fc 
^Is, all ret 
>ss and 
e old tower of 

a nows biu.-'- 



ad quail 



v>f an' 

Avood; - Stream 



c of fhe bc:-hard 



i^wiSalfi. -.i^SJw.wva a\^ aV«i)'\ 



MALINES 

rious, limned against the pearly, luminous sky, the more 
impressive perhaps because of its unfinished state. And 
so, however interesting the other architectural attractions 
of Malines might be, and they were many, it was always 
to the great cathedral that one turned, for the towns- 
people were so proud of the great gray tower, venerated 
throughout the whole region, that they were insistent that 
we should explore it to the last detail. " The bells," they 
would exclaim, " the great bells of Saint Rombauld ! 
You have not yet seen them? " 

St. Rombauld simply compelled one's attention, and 
ended by laying so firm a hold upon the imagination that 
at no moment of the day or night was one wholly uncon- 
scious of its unique presence. By day and night its 
chimes floated through the air " like the music of fairy 
bells," weird and soft, noting the passing hours in this 
ancient Flemish town. For four hundred years it had 
watched over the varying fortunes of this region, gaining 
that precious quality which appealed to Ruskin, who said, 
" Its glory is in its age and in that deep sense of voiceful- 
ness, of stern watching, of mysterious sympathy, nay, 
even of approval or condemnation, which we feel in walls 
that have long been washed by the passing waves of 
humanity." 

From below the eye was carried upward by range upon 
range of exquisite Gothic detail to the four great open- 

27 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

work, gilded, clock discs, through which one could dimly 
see the beautiful, open-pointed lancets behind which on 
great beams hung the carillon bells, row upon row. 

No words of mine can give any idea of the rich grayish 
brown of this old tower against the pale luminous sky, or 
the pathetic charm of its wild bell music, shattering down 
through the silent watches of the night, over the sleeping 
town, as I have heard it, standing by some silent, dark, 
palace-bordered canal, watching the tall tower melting 
into the immensity of the dusk, or by day in varying light 
and shade, in storm and sunshine, with wind-driven 
clouds chasing each other across the sky. 

The ascent of the tower was a formidable task, and 
really it seemed as if it must have been far more than 
three hundred and fifty feet to the topmost gallery, when 
I essayed it on that stormy August day. It was not an 
easy task to gain admittance to the tower; on two former 
occasions, when I made the attempt, the custode was not 
to be found. " He had gone to market and taken the 
key to the tower door with him," said the withered old 
dame who at length understood my wish. On this day, 
however, she produced the key, a huge iron one, weighing, 
I should say, half a pound, from a nail behind the green 
door of the entry. She unlocked a heavy, white-washed 
door into a dusty, dim vestibule, and then proceeded to 
lock me in, pointing to another door at the farther end, 

28 



MALINES 

saying, as she returned to her savory stew pot on the iron 
stove, " Montez, Montez, vous trouverez I'escalier." 
The heavy door swung to by a weight on a cord, and I 
was at the bottom step of the winding stairway of the 
tower. For a few steps upward the way was in darkness, 
up the narrow stone steps, clinging to a waxy, slippery 
rope attached to the wall, which was grimy with dust, the 
steps sloping worn and uneven. Quaint, gloomy open- 
ings in the wall revealed themselves from time to time as 
I toiled upwards, openings into deep gulfs of mysterious 
gloom, spanned at times by huge oaken beams. Here and 
there at dim landings, lighted by narrow Gothic slits in 
the walls, were blackened, low doorways heavily bolted 
and studded with iron nails. The narrow slits of win- 
dows served only to let in dim, dusty beams of violet 
light. Through one dark slit in the wall I caught sight 
of the huge bulk of a bronze bell, green with the precious 
patina of age, and I fancied I heard footsteps on the stair- 
way that wound its way above. 

It was the watchman, a great hairy, oily Fleming, clad 
in a red sort of jersey, and blue patched trousers. On 
the back of his shock of pale, rope-colored hair sat jaun- 
tily a diminutive cap with a glazed peak. In the lobes 
of his huge ears were small gold rings. 

I was glad to see him and to have his company in that 
place of cobwebs and dangling hand rope. I gave him 

29 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

a thick black cigar which I had bought in the market-place 
that morning, and struck a match from which we both had 
a light. He expressed wonder at my matches, those paper 
cartons common in America, but which he had never be- 
fore seen. I gave them to him, to his delight. He 
brought me upwards into a room crammed with strange 
machinery, all cranks and levers and wires and pulleys, 
and before us two great cylinders like unto a " Brobding- 
nagian " music box. He drew out a stool for me and 
courteously bade me be seated, speaking in French with a 
strong Flemish accent. He was, he said, a mechanic, 
whose duty it was to care for the bells and the machinery. 
He had an assistant who went on duty at six o'clock. He 
served watches of eight hours. There came a " whir " 
from a fan above, and a tinkle from a small bell some- 
where near at hand. He said that the half hour would 
strike in three minutes. Had I ever been in a bell tower 
when the chimes played? Yes? Then M'sieur knew 
what to expect. 

I took out my watch, and from the tail of my eye I 
fancied that I saw a gleam in his as he appraised the 
watch I held in my hand. He drew his bench nearer to 
me and held out his great hairy, oily paw, saying, " Let 
me see the pretty watch." " Not necessary," I replied, 
putting it back in my pocket and calmly eying him, al- 
though my heart began to beat fast. I was alone in the 

30 



MALINES 

tower with this hairy Cerberus, who, for all I knew, might 
be contemplating doing me mischief. 

If I was in danger, as I might be, then I resolved to de- 
fend myself as well as I was able. I had an ammonia gun 
in my pocket which I carried to fend off ugly dogs by the 
roadside, which infest the country. And this I carried 
in my hip pocket. It resembled somewhat a forty-four 
caliber revolver. I put my hand behind me, drew it forth, 
eying him the while, and ostentatiously toyed with it be- 
fore placing it in my blouse side pocket. It had, I 
thought, an instantaneous effect, for he drew back, open- 
ing his great mouth to say something, I know not what 
nor shall I ever know, for at that instant came a clang 
from the machinery, a warning whir of wheels, the rattle 
of chains, and one of the great barrels began to revolve 
slowly; up and down rattled the chains and levers, then, 
faint, sweet and far off, I heard a melodious jangle fol- 
lowed by the first notes of the " Mirleton " I had so often 
heard below in the town, but now subdued, etherealized, 
and softened like unto the dream music one fancies in the 
night. The watchman now grinned reassuringly at me, 
and, rising, beckoned me with his huge grimy hand to fol- 
low him. Grasping my good ammonia gun I followed 
him up a wooden stairway to a green baize covered door. 
This he opened to an inferno of crash and din. The air 
was alive with tumult and the booming of heavy metal. 

31 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

We were among the great bells of the bottom tier. Be- 
fore us was the "bourdon," so called, weighing 2,200 
pounds, the bronze monster upon which the bass note was 
sounded, and which sounded the hour over the level fields 
of Flanders. Dimly above I could see other bells of va- 
rious size, hanging tier upon tier from great, red-painted, 
wooden beams clamped with iron bands. 

I contrived to keep the watchman ever before me, not 
trusting him, although his frank smile somewhat disarmed 
my suspicion. It may be I did him an injustice, but I 
liked not the avaricious gleam in his little slits of eyes. 

The bells clanged and clashed as they would break from 
their fastenings and drop upon us, and my brain reeled 
with the discord. On they beat and boomed, as if they 
would never stop. No melody was now apparent, though 
down below it had seemed as if their sweetness was all too 
brief. Up here in the tower they were not at air melodi- 
ous; they were rough, discordant, and uneven, some 
sounding as though out of tune and cracked. All of the 
mystery and glamour of sweet tenderness, all their pathos 
and weirdness, had quite vanished, and here amid the 
smell of lubricating oil and the heavy, noisy grinding 
of the cog wheels, and the rattle of iron chains, all the 
poetry and elusiveness of the bells was certainly want- 
ing. 

All at once just before me a great hammer raised its 
32 



MALINES 

head, and then fell with a sounding clang upon the rim of 
a big bell ; the half hour had struck. All about us the air 
resounded and vibrated with the mighty waves of sound. 
From the bells above finally came the hum of faint har- 
monics, and then followed silence like the stillness that 
ensues after a heavy clap of thunder. 

Cerberus now beckoned me to accompany him amongst 
the bells, and showed me the machinery that sets this great 
marvel of sound in motion. He showed me the huge 
" tambour-carillon," with barrels all bestudded with little 
brass pegs which pull the wires connected with the great 
hammers, which in their turn strike the forty-six bells, 
that unrivaled chime known throughout Flanders as the 
master work of the Van den Gheyns of Louvain, who 
were, as already told, the greatest bell founders of the 
age. 

The great hour bell weighing, as already noted, nearly 
a ton, required the united strength of eight men to 
ring him. Cerberus pointed out to me the narrow plank 
runway between the huge dusty beams, whereon these 
eight men stood to their task. The carillon tunes, he told 
me, were altered every year or so, and to do this required 
the entire changing of the small brass pegs in the cylin- 
ders, a most formidable task, I thought. He explained 
that the cutting of each hole costs sixty centimes (twelve 
cents) and that there were about 30,000 holes» so that the 

33 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

change must be quite expensive, but I did not figure it out 
for myself. 

The musical range of this carillon chime of Malines 
may be judged by the fact that it was possible to play, 
following on the hour, a selection from " Don Pasquale," 
and on the half and quarter hours a few bars from the 
" Pre aux Clercs." Every seven and a half minutes 
sounded a few jangling sweet notes, and thus the air over 
the old town of Malines and the small hamlets surround- 
ing it both day and night was musical with the bells of 
the carillon. 

On fete days a certain famous bell ringer was engaged 
by the authorities to play the bells from the clavecin. 
This is a sort of keyboard with pedals played by hand and 
foot, fashioned like a rude piano. The work is very hard, 
one would think, but I have heard some remarkable re- 
sults from it. In former times the office of " carillon- 
eur " was a most important position, and, as in the case 
of the Van den Gheyn family of Louvain, it was hered- 
itary. The music played by these men, those " morceaux 
fugues," once the pride and pleasure of the Netherlands, 
is now the wonder and despair of the modern bell ringer, 
however skillful he may be. 

Cerberus informed me that sometimes months pass with- 
out a visit from a stranger to his tower room, and that he 

34 




The Beguinage : Dixmudc 



VANISHED TOWERS 



change must be quit' 
for myself. 

The musical ranjre 
may be judged 
following on the hoi 
and on the half 
" Pre aux Cler 
sounded a few ^ 
the old tov 
ing it both m 

the pari Hon. 

by th« 
T!' 

f 



itididnatngure n 



^ut 



of this carillon chime of Malines 
sat it was possible to play, 
tion from " Don Pasqnale," 
hours a few bars from the 
even and a half minutes 
^ notes, and thus the air over 
rhe small hamlets siirround- 
is musical wi*-^' ^*'- "'-■' '^^ of 

famous bell ringer was engaged 

ay the bells from the clavecin. 

' ' ° H als played by hand and 

The work is very hard, 

rd some remarkable re- 

ofBce of " carillon- 

and, as in the case 

ivain, it was hered- 

e men, those " morceaux 

of the Netherlands, 

'-"" bell ringer, 



s months pass with- 
>m, and that he 



V)\uM«'f.iQ. •. SQBM JMQ'iH V>i\T 



'<?'J^' 







MALINES 

had to wind up the mechanism of the immense clock twice 
each day, and that of the carillon separately three times 
each twenty-four hours, and that it was required of him 
that he should sound two strokes upon the " do " bell 
after each quarter, to show that he was " on the job," so 
to speak. 

I told him I thought his task a hard and lonely one, and 
I offered him another of the black cigars, which he ac- 
cepted with civility, but I kept my hand ostentatiously in 
my blouse pocket, where lay the ammonia gun, and 
he saw plainly that I did so. I am inclined now to think 
that my fears, as far as he was concerned, were ground- 
less, but nevertheless they were very real that day in the 
old tower of Saint Rombauld. 

He began his task of winding up the mechanism, while 
I mounted the steep steps leading upwards to the top 
gallery. Here on the open gallery I gazed north, east, 
south, and west over the placid, flat, green-embossed 
meadows threaded with silver, ribbon-like waterways, 
upon which floated red-sailed barges. Below, as in the 
bottom of a bowl, lay Malines, its small red-roofed 
houses stretching away in all directions to the remains of 
the ancient walls, topped here and there with a red-sailed 
windmill, in the midst of verdant fresh fields wooded 
here and there with clumps of willows, where the armies 

35 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

of the counts of Flanders, and the Van Arteveldes, fought 
in the olden days. 

I could see the square below where, in the Grand' Place, 
those doughty Knights of the Golden Fleece had gath- 
ered before the pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Now a few 
dwarfed, black figures of peasants crawled like insects 
across the wide emptiness of it. Here among the startled 
jackdaws I lounged smoking and ruminating upon the 
bells, oily Cerberus, and his lonely task, and inhaling the 
misty air from the winding canals in the fertile green 
fields below — appraising the values of the pale diapha- 
nous sky of misty blue, harmonizing so exquisitely with 
the tender greens of the landscape which had charmed 
Cuyp and Memling, until the blue was suffused with 
molten gold, and over all the landscape spread a tender 
and lovely radiance, which in turn became changed to 
ruddy flames in the west, and then the radiance began to 
fade. 

Then I bethought me that it was time I sought out the 
terrible Cerberus, the guardian of the tower, and induce 
him peaceably to permit me to go forth unharmed. I con- 
fess that I was coward enough to give him two francs as 
a fee instead of the single one which was his due, and 
then I stumbled down the long winding stairway, grasp- 
ing the slippery hand rope timorously until I gained the 
street level, glad to be among fellow beings once more, 

36 



MALINES 

but not sorry I had spent the afternoon among the bells 
of the Carillon of Saint Rombauld — those bells which 
now lie broken among the ashes of the tower in the Grand' 
Place of the ruined town of Malines. 



37 



%mt dmmm ot TfMm 



%im (Sdrillons of fMm 

<^#T is worth noting that nearly all of the noble Flem- 
mM ish towers with their wealth of bells are almost 
^^ within sight (and I had nearly written, sound) of 
each other. From the summit of the tower in Antwerp 
one could see dimly the cathedrals of Malines and Brus- 
sels, perhaps even those of Bruges and Ghent in clear 
weather. Haweis ("Music and Morals") says that 
" one hundred and twenty-six towers can be seen from the 
Antwerp Cathedral on a fair morning," and he was a 
most careful observer. " So these mighty spires, gray and 
changeless in the high air, seem to hold converse together 
over the heads of puny mortals, and their language is 
rolled from tower to tower by the music of the bells." 

" Non sunt loquellae neque sermones, audiantur voces 
eorum," (there is neither speech nor language, but their 
voices are heard among men) . 

This is an inscription copied by Haweis in the tower at 
Antwerp, from a great bell signed, " F. Hemony Amstelo- 
damia, 1658." 

Speaking of the rich decorations which the Van den 
41 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

Gheyns and Hemony lavished on their bells, he says, 
" The decorations worked in has relief around some of the 
old bells are extremely beautiful, while the inscriptions 
are often highly suggestive, and even touching." These 
decorations are usually confined to the top and bottom 
rims of the bell, and are in low relief, so as to impede the 
vibration as little as possible. At Malines on a bell bear- 
ing date " 1697, Antwerp " (now destroyed) there is an 
amazingly vigorous hunt through a forest with dogs and 
all kinds of animals. I did not see this bell when I was 
in the tower of St. Rombauld, as the light in the bell 
chamber was very dim. The inscription was carried right 
around the bell, and had all the grace and freedom of a 
spirited sketch. 

On one of Hemony's bells dated 1674 and bearing the 
inscription, " Laudate Domini omnes Gentes," we no- 
ticed a long procession of cherub boys dancing and ringing 
flat hand bells such as are even now rung before the Host 
in street processions. 

Some of the inscriptions are barely legible because of 
the peculiarity of the Gothic letters. Haweis mentions 
seeing the initials J. R. (" John Ruskin ") in the deep 
sill of the staircase window; underneath a slight design 
of a rose window apparently sketched with the point of 
a compass. Ruskin loved the Malines Cathedral well, 
and made many sketches of detail while there. I looked 

42 





Detail of the Chimes in the Belfry of St. Nicholas: Dixnmde 



rtiNioriryi 



RS OF 



v„rijcyns and Hemoiij, iavished on t suys, 

" The decorations worked in basreliei of the 

old bells are extremely beautiful, while the inscriptions 
are often highly suggestive, and even toudiing." These 
usually coniined to the top and bottom 

i, and are in low relief, so as to impede the 

vibration as little as possible. At Malines on a bell bear- 
ing date " 1697, Antwerp " (now destroyed) there is an 
amazing!}' ' hunt through a forest with dogs and 

all kinds oi ^. I did not see this bell when I was 

in the tower of St. Rombauld, as the light in the bell 
chamber was very dim. The inscription was carried right 
aroimd the bell, and had all the grace and freedom of a 
spirited sketch. 

On one of Hemony's bells dated 1674 and bearing the 
inscription, "Laudate Domini omnes Gentes," we no- 
ticed a long proi ' f cherub boys dancing and ringing 
flat hand bells sl . even now rung before the Host 

in street processions. 

Some of the inscriptions are barely legible because of 
the peculiarity of the Gothic let ' -^mentions 

seeing the initials J. R. ("John -^ the deep 

sill of the staircase window; undcm- lesign 

of a rose window apparently skt int of 

a compass. Ruskin loved the N 11, 

and made many sketches of det: ! d 



abMwxsQ. •. •AwSoiVjsYi .it \v> vv^\ha ^Al m A-iWMVJ asU \o Sin^t^OL 



SOME CARILLONS OF FLANDERS 

carefully for these initials, but I could not find them, I 
am sorry to say. 

Bells have been strangely neglected by antiquaries and 
historians, and but few facts concerning them are to be 
found in the libraries. Haweis speaks of the difficulty he 
encountered in finding data about the chimes of the Low 
Countries, alleging that the published accounts and 
rumors about their size, weight, and age are seldom ac- 
curate or reliable. Even in the great libraries and 
archives of the Netherlands at Louvain, Bruges, or Brus- 
sels the librarians were unable to furnish him with ac- 
curate information. 

He says : " The great folios of Louvain, Antwerp, and 
Mechlin (Malines) containing what is generally sup- 
posed to be an exhaustive transcript of all the monumen- 
tal and funereal inscriptions in Belgium, will often be- 
stow but a couple of dates and one inscription upon a 
richly decorated and inscribed carillon of thirty or forty 
bells. The reason of this is not far to seek. The fact 
is, it is no easy matter to get at the bells when once they 
are hung, and many an antiquarian who will haunt tombs 
and pore over illegible brasses with commendable pa- 
tience will decline to risk his neck in the most interesting 
of belfries. The pursuit, too, is often a disappointing 
one. Perhaps it is possible to get half way around a bell 
and then be prevented by a thick beam, or the bell's own 

43 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

wheel from seeing the outer half, which, by perverse 
chance, generally contains the date and the name of the 
founder. 

" Perhaps the oldest bell is quite inaccessible, or, after 
a half hour's climbing amid the utmost dust and difficulty, 
we reach a perfectly blank or commonplace bell." 

He gives the date of 1620, as that when the family of 
Van den Gheyns were bringing the art of bell founding 
to perfection in Louvain, and notes that the tower and 
bells of each fortified town were half civic property. 
Thus the curfew, the carolus, and the St. Mary bells in 
Antwerp Cathedral belong to the town. 

" Let us," he says, " enter the town of Mechlin 
(Malines) in the year 1638. The old wooden bridge 
(over the river Dyle) has since been replaced by a 
stone one. To this day the elaborately carved fagades 
of the old houses close on the water are of incomparable 
richness of design. The peculiar ascent of steps leading 
up to the angle of the roof, in a style borrowed from the 
Spaniards, is a style everywhere to be met with. The 
noblest of square florid Gothic towers, the tower of St. 
Rombauld (variously spelled St. Rombaud, St. Rom- 
baut, or St. Rombod) finished up to three hundred and 
forty-eight feet, guides us to what is now called the 
Grand' Place, where in an obscure building are the work- 
shops and furnaces adjoining the abode of Peter Van den 

44 



SOME CARILLONS OF FLANDERS 

Gheyn, the most renowned bell founder of the seven- 
teenth century, born in 1605. In company with his asso- 
ciate, Deklerk, arrangements are being made for the 
founding of a big bell. 

" Before the cast was made there was no doubt great 
controversy between the mighty smiths, Deklerk and Van 
den Gheyn: plans had to be drawn out on parchment, 
measurements and calculations made, little proportions 
weighed by fine instinct, and the defects and merits of 
ever so many bells canvassed. The ordinary measure- 
ments, which now hold good for a large bell, are, roughly, 
one-fifteenth of the diameter in thickness, and twelve 
times the thickness in height. Describing the foundry 
buildings: The first is for the furnaces, containing the 
vast caldron for the fusing of the metal; in the second 
is a kind of shallow well, where the bell would have to be 
modeled in clay. 

" The object to be first attained is a hollow mold of the 
exact size and shape of the intended bell, into which the 
liquid metal is poured through a tube from the furnace, 
and this mold is constructed in the following simple but 
ingenious manner : 

" Suppose the bell to be six feet high, a brick column of 
about that height is built something in the shape of the 
outside of a bell. Upon the smooth surface of this solid 
bell-shaped mass can now be laid figures, decorations, and 

45 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

inscriptions in wax; a large quantity of the most deli- 
cately prepared clay is then produced, the model is 
slightly washed with some kind of oil to prevent the fine 
clay from sticking to it, and three or four coats of the fine 
clay in an almost liquid state are daubed carefully all 
over the model. Next, a coating of common clay is added 
to strengthen the mold to the thickness of some inches. 
And thus the model stands with its great bell-shaped cover 
closely fitting over it. 

" A fire is now lighted underneath, the brick work in the 
interior is heated, through the clay, through the wax orna- 
ments and oils, which steam out in vapor through two 
holes at the top, leaving their impressions on the inside 
of the cover (of clay) . 

" When everything is baked thoroughly hard, the cover 
is raised bodily into the air by a rope, and held suspended 
some feet exactly above the model. In the interior of the 
cover thus raised will, of course, be found the exact im- 
pression in hollow of the outside of the bell. The model 
of clay and masonry is then broken up, and its place is 
taken by another perfectly smooth model, only smaller — 
exactly the size of the inside of the bell, in fact. On 
this the great cover now descends, and is stopped in time 
to leave a hollow space between the new model and itself. 
This is effected simply by the bottom rim of the new 

46 




The Belfry: Bergues 



VAAiSHKD TOWEKb Ui i i-A-MJlLlib 

inscriptions in wax; a large quantity of the most deli- 
cately prepared clay is then produced, the model is 
slightly washed with some kind of oil to prevent the fine 
clay from sticking to it, and three or four coats of the fine 
clay in an almost liquid state are daubed carefully all 
over the model. Next, a coating of common clay is added 
to strengthen the mold to the thicknes»of some inches. 
And thus the model stands with its great bell-shaped cover 
closely fitting over it. 

" A fire is now lighted underneath, the brick work in the 
interior is heated, through the clay, through the wax orna- 
ments and oils, which steam out in vapor through two 
holes at the top, leaving their impressions on the inside 
of the cover (of clay) . 

" When everything is baked thoroughly hard, the cover 
is raised bodily into the air by a rope, and held suspended 
some feet exactly above the model. In the interior of the 
cover thus raised will, of course, be found the exact im- 
pression in hollow of the outside of the bell. The model 
of clay and masonry is then broken up, and its place is 
taken by another perfectly smooth model, only smaller — 
exactly the size of the inside of the bell, in fact. On 
this the great cover now descends, and is stopped in time 
ft; leave a hollow space between the new model and itself. 
Ihis is effected simply by the bottom rim of the new 

46 



j^M'gtaS. •.^•v\S^S 3i\T 



SOME CARILLONS OF FLANDERS 

model forming a base, at the proper distance upon which 
the rim of the clay cover may rest in its descent. 

" The hollow space between the clay cover and second 
clay mold is now the exact shape of the required bell, and 
only waits to be filled with metal. 

" So far all has been comparatively easy; but the critical 
moment has now arrived. The furnaces have long been 
smoking ; the brick work containing the caldron is almost 
glowing with red heat; a vast draft passage underneath 
the floor keeps the fire rapid; from time to time it leaps 
up with a hundred angry tongues, or in one sheet of flame, 
over the furnace-imbedded caldron. Then the cunning 
artificer brings forth his heaps of choice metal, large cakes 
of red coruscated copper from Drontheim, called " Ro- 
sette," owing to a certain rare pink bloom that seems to lie 
all over it like the purple on a plum; then a quantity of 
tin, so highly refined that it shines and glistens like pure 
silver; these are thrown into the caldron and melted down 
together. Kings and nobles have stood beside those fa- 
mous caldrons, and looked with reverence upon the mak- 
ing of these old bells. Nay, they have brought gold and 
silver and, pronouncing the name of some holy saint or 
apostle which the bell was thereafter to bear, they have 
flung in precious metals, rings, bracelets, and even 
bullion. 

47 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

" But for a moment or two before the pipe which is to 
convey the metal to the mold is opened, the smith stands 
and stirs the molten mass to see if all is melted. Then 
he casts in certain proportions of zinc and other metals 
which belong to the secrets of the trade; he knows how 
much depends upon these little refinements, which he has 
acquired by experience, and which perhaps he could not 
impart even if he would, so true is it that in every art that 
which constitutes success is a matter of instinct, and not 
of rule, or even science. 

" He knows, too, that almost everything depends upon 
the moment chosen for flooding the mold. Standing in 
the intense heat, and calling loudly for a still more raging 
fire, he stirs the metal once more. At a given signal the 
pipe is opened, and w'ith a long smothered rush the molten 
metal fills the mold to the brim. Nothing now remains 
but to let the metal cool, and then to break up the clay 
and brick work and extract the bell, which is then finished 
for better or for worse." 

We learn much of the difficulties encountered even by 
these great masters in successfully casting the bells, and 
that even they were not exempt from failure. "The 
Great Salvator " bell at Malines, made by Peter Van den 
Gheyn, cracked eight years after it was hung in the tower 
( 1696) . It was recast by De Haze of Antwerp, and ex- 

48 



SOME CARILLONS OF FLANDERS 

isted up to a few years ago — surely a good long life for 
any active bell. 

In the belfry of St. Peter's at Louvain, which is now in 
ruins and level with the street, was a great bell of splen- 
did tone, bearing the following inscription: "Claes 
Noorden Johan Albert de Grave me fecerunt Amstel — 
odamia, MDCCXIV." 

Haweis mentions also the names of Bartholomews 
Goethale, 1680, who made a bell now in St. Stephen's 
belfry at Ghent; and another, Andrew Steilert, 1563, at 
Malines (Mechlin) . The great carillon in the belfry at 
Bruges, thus far spared by the iconoclasts of 1914, consist- 
ing of forty bells and one large Bourdon, or triumphal 
bell, is from the foundry of the great Dumery, who also 
made the carillon at Antwerp. 

Haweis credits Petrus Hemony, 1658, with being the 
most prolific of all the bell founders. He was a good 
musician and took to bell founding only late in life. 
" His small bells are exceedingly fine, but his larger ones 
are seldom true." 

To the ear of so eminent an authority this may be true, 
but, to my own, the bells seem quite perfect, and I have 
repeatedly and most attentively listened to them from be- 
low in the Grand' Place, trying to discover the inharmoni- 
ous note that troubled him, I ven.tured to ask one of the 

49 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

priests if he had noticed any flatness in the notes, and he 
scorned the idea, saying that the bells, " all of them," 
were perfect. 

Nevertheless, I must accept the statement of Haweis, 
who for years made a study of these bells and their indi- 
vidualities and than whom perhaps never has lived a more 
eminent authority. 

From my room in the small hotel de Buda, just beneath 
the old gray tower of St. Rombauld in this ancient town 
of Malines, I have listened by day and night to the music 
of these bells, which sounded so exquisite to me that I can 
still recall them. The poet has beautifully expressed the 
idea of the bell music of Flanders thus, " The Wind that 
sweeps over her campagnas and fertile levels is full of 
broken melodious whispers " (Haweis) . 

Certainly these chimes of bells playing thus by day and 
night, day in, day out, year after year, must exercise a 
most potent influence upon the imagination and life of 
the people. 

The Flemish peasant is born, grows up, lives his life 
out, and finally is laid away to the music of these ancient 
bells. 

When I came away from Malines and reached Antwerp, 
I lodged in the Place Verte, as near to the chimes as I 
could get. My student days being over, I found that I 
had a strange sense of loss, as if I had lost a dear and 

50 



The Old Porte MarecJialc: Bruges 



f Haweis. 



.yuvvil oito^ yO aiVY 



If.i'^A.^PiLi.yi.'-i 




SOME CARILLONS OF FLANDERS 

valued friend, for the sound of the bells had become really 
a part of my daily existence. 

Victor Hugo, who traveled through Flanders in 1837, 
stopped for a time in Malines, and was so impressed with 
the carillon that he is said to have written there the fol- 
lowing lines by moonlight with a diamond upon the win- 
dow-pane in his room ; 

" J'aime le carillon dans tes cites Antiques, 
O vieux pays, gardien de tes moeurs domestiques. 
Noble Flandre, 011 le Nord se rechauffe engourdi 
Au soleil de Castille et s'accouple au Midi. 
Le carillon, c'est I'heure inattendue et folle 
Que I'oeil croit voir, vetue en danseuse espagnole 
Apparaitre soudain par le trou vif et clair 
Que ferait, en s'ouvrant, une porte de Pair." 

It was not until the seventeenth century that Flanders 
began to place these wondrous collections of bells in her 
great towers, which seem to have been built for them. 
Thus came the carillons of Malines, Bruges, Ghent, Ant- 
werp, Louvain, and Tournai. Of these, Antwerp pos- 
sessed the greatest in number, sixty-five bells. Malines 
came next with forty-four, then Bruges with forty, and a 
great bourdon or bass bell; then Tournai and Louvain 
with forty, and finally Ghent with thirty-nine. 

In ancient times these carillons were played by hand 
on a keyboard, called a clavecin. In the belfry at Bruges, 
in a dusty old chamber with a leaden floor, I found a very 

51 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

old clave cm. It was simply a rude keyboard much like 
that of a primitive kind of organ, presenting a number of 
jutting handles, something like rolling pins, each of which 
was attached to a wire operating the hammer, in the bell 
chamber overhead, which strikes the rim of the bells. 
There was an old red, leather-covered bench before this 
machine on which the performer sat, and it must have 
been a task requiring considerable strength and agility so 
to smite each of these pins with his gloved fist, his knees 
and each of his feet (on the foot board) that the ham- 
mers above would fall on the rims of the different bells. 

From my room in the old " Panier d'or " in the market- 
place on many nights have I watched the tower against 
the dim sky, and seen the light of the " veilleur" shining 
in the topmost window, where he keeps watch over the 
sleeping town, and sounds two strokes upon a small bell 
after each quarter is struck, to show that he is on watch. 
And so passed the time in this peaceful land until that 
fatal day in August, 1914. 



52 



j^ixmnd^ 



^|MH£R£ is no longer a Grand' Place at Dixmude. 
flu Of the town, the great squat church of St. Martin, 
^■•^ and the quaint town hall adjoining it, now not one 
stone remains upon another. The old mossy walls and 
bastion are level with the soil, and even the course of the 
small sluggishly flowing river Yser is changed by the 
ruin that chokes it. 

I found it to be a melancholy, faded-out kind of place 
in 1910, when I last saw it. I came down from Antwerp 
especially to see old St. Martin's, which enshrined a most 
wondrous Jube, or altar screen, and a chime of bells 
from the workshop of the Van den Gheyns. There was 
likewise on the Grand' Place, a fine old prison of the 
fourteenth century, its windows all closed with rusty iron 
bars, most of which were loose in the stones. I tried them, 
to the manifest indignation of the solitary gendarme, 
who saw me from a distance across the Grand' Place and 
hurried over to place me under arrest. I had to show him 
not only my passport but my letter of credit and my 

ss 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

sketch book before he would believe that I was what I 
claimed to be, a curious American, and something of an 
antiquary. But it was the sketch book that won him, for 
he told me that he had a son studying painting in Antwerp 
at the academy. So we smoked together on a bench over 
the bridge of the " Pape Gaei " and he related the story 
of his life, while I made a sketch of the silent, grass-grown 
Grand' Place and the squat tower of old St. Martin's, and 
the Town Hall beside it. 

While we sat there on the bench only two people crossed 
the square, that same square that witnessed the entry of 
Charles the Fifth amid the silk- and velvet-clad nobles 
and burghers, and the members of the great and powerful 
guilds, which he regarded and treated with such respect. 
In those days the town had a population of thirty thou- 
sand or more. On this day my friend the gendarme 
told me that there were about eleven hundred in the 
town. Of this eleven hundred I saw twelve market peo- 
ple, the custode of the church of St. Martin; ditto that 
of the Town Hall; the gendarme; one baby in the arms 
of a crippled girl, and two gaunt cats. 

The great docks to which merchantmen from all parts 
of the earth came in ships in the sixteenth and seven- 
teenth centuries had now vanished, and long green grass 
waved in the meadows where the channel had been. 

The ancient corporations and brotherhood, formerly of 
56 




The Ancient Place: DLvmude 




WSSfJW^P'^'"^*' 



DIXMUDE 

such power and renown, had likewise long since vanished, 
and nought remained but here and there on the silent, 
grass-grown streets gray, ancient palaces with barred and 
shuttered windows. The very names of those who once 
dwelt there could be found only in the musty archives in 
Bruges or Brussels. A small estaminet across the bridge 
bore the sign " In den Pape Gaei," and to this I fared and 
wrote my notes, while the crippled girl carrying the baby 
seated herself where she could watch me, and then lapsed 
into a sort of trance, with wide open eyes which evidently 
saw not. 

In company with a large, black, savage-looking dog 
which traveled side-ways regarding me threateningly, I 
thought, and gloweringly refused my offers of friendship, 
I crossed the Grand' Place to the Hotel de Ville, or Town 
Hall, the door of which stood open. Inside, no living 
soul responded to my knock. The rooms were rather 
bare of furniture, many of them of noble proportions, and 
a few desks and chairs showed that they were used by the 
town officers, wherever they were. 

St. Martin's was closed, and I skirted its walls, hoping 
to find somewhere a door unfastened that I might enter 
and see the great Jube or altar screen. In a small, evil- 
smelling alley-way, where there was a patch of green 
grass, I saw low down in the wall a grated window, which 
I fancied must be at the back of the altar. I got down 

57 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

on my knees and, parting the grass which grew there 
rankly, I put my face in against the iron bars that closed 
it. For a moment I could see nothing, then when my eyes 
became accustomed to the light I saw a tall candle burn- 
ing on an iron ring on the wall ; then a heavy black cross 
beside it, and finally a figure in some sort of heavy dark 
robe kneeling prostrate before it, only the tightly clasped 
white hands gleaming in the dim candle light; almost 
holding my breath I withdrew my head, feeling that I 
was almost committing sacrilege. Unfortunately for me, 
I dislodged some loose mortar, and I heard this rattle 
noisily into the chamber below. Then I fled as rapidly 
as I could down the dim alley-way to the silent sunlit 
Grand' Place. Here I found the verger, and he admitted 
me to the great old church, in return for a one-franc piece, 
and brought me a rush-bottom chair to a choice spot before 
the wondrous Jube, where I made my drawing. 

In the silence of the great gray old church I labored 
over the exquisite Gothic detail, all unmindful of the 
passing time, when all at once I became conscious that a 
small green door beside the right hand low retable was 
moving outward. I ceased working and watched it ; then 
the solitary candle before the statue of the Virgin gut- 
tered and flared up; then the small door opened wide and 
forth came an old man in a priest's cassock, with a staff 
in his hand. The small, green, baize-covered door closed 

58 



The Great Juhc, or Altar Screen: Dixmude 



i\lU«M,\V\ 



DIXMUDE 

noiselessly; the old man slowly opened the gate before 
the altar and came down the step toward me. Without 
a word he walked behind my chair and peered over my 
shoulder at the drawing I was making of the great 
Jube. 

He tapped the floor with his staff, placed it under his 
arm, sought his pocket somewhere beneath his cassock, 
from which he produced a snuff box. From this he took 
a generous pinch, and a moment later was blowing vigor- 
ously that note of satisfaction that only a devotee of the 
powder can render an effective adjunct of emotion. 

" Bien faite, M'sieur," he exclaimed at length, wiping 
his eyes on a rather suspicious looking handkerchief. 
" T-r-r-r-r-es bien faite ! J'vous fais mes compliments." 
" Admirable I You have certainly rendered the spirit of 
our great and wondrous altar screen." 

A little later we passed out of the old church through 
a side door leading into a small green enclosure, now 
gloomy in the shade of the old stone walls. At one end 
was a tangle of briar, and here were some old graves, 
each with a tinsel wreath or two on the iron cross. And 
presiding over these was the limp figure of a one-legged 
man on two crutches, who saluted us. We passed along 
to the end of the inclosure, where lay a chance beam of 
sunshine like a bar of dusty gold against the rich green 
grass. 

59 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

"Oui, M'sieur," said the priest, as if continuing a sen- 
tence he was running over in his mind. " Casse I Pauvre 
Pierre, un peu casse, le pauvre bonhomme, but then, he's 
good for several years yet; cracked he is, but only cracked 
like a good old basin, and (in the idiom) he'll still hold 
well his bowl of soup." 

He laughed at his wit, became grave, then shook out 
another laugh. 

" See," he added, pointing to the ground all about us 
strewn with morsels of tile; " the roof cracks, but it still 
holds," he added, pointing upwards at the old tower of 
St. Martin's. " And now, M'sieur, I shall take you to my 
house; tenez, figure to yourself," and he laid a fine, richly 
veined, strong old hand upon my arm with a charming 
gesture. " I have been here twenty-five years ; I bought 
all the antique furniture of my predecessor. I said to my- 
self, ' Yes, I shall buy the furniture for five hundred 
francs, and then, later I shall sell to a wealthy amateur 
for one thousand francs, perhaps in a year or two.' 
Twenty-five years ago, and I have it yet. And now it 
creaks and creaks and snaps in the night. We all creak 
and creak thus as we grow old; ah, you should hear my 
wardrobes. ' EUes cassent les dos,' and I lie in my warm 
bed in the winter nights and listen to my antiques groan 
and complain. Poor old things, they belonged to the 
' Empire ' Period; no wonder they groan. 

60 



The Fish Market: Dixmude 



t the nld toTr'Cr o^ 



to yours* 



abwswxjd -.S^-A-saVv Au'\ -lAT 



•.nsf^ST'y^" 




DIXMUDE 

" And when my friend the notaire comes to play chess 
with me, you should see him eye my antiques, ah, so cov- 
etously; I see him, but I never let on. Such a collec- 
tion of antiques as we all are, M'sieur." Then he became 
serious, and lifting his cane he pointed to a gravestone 
at one side, " My old servant lies there, M'sieur; we are 
all old here now, but still we do not die. Alas ! we never 
die. There is plenty of room here for us, but we die hard. 
See, myotis, heliotrope, hare bells, and mignonette, a bed 
of perfume, and there lies my old servant. A restless 
old soul she was, and she took such a long time to die. 
She was eighty-five when she finally made up her mind." 

I had a cup of wine with the old man in his small salle 
a manger. His house was indeed a mine of wealth for 
the antiquary and collector, more like a shop than a house. 
I lingered with him for nearly an hour, telling him of the 
great world lying beyond Dixmude, of London and Paris, 
and of New York and some of its wonders, of which I 
fancied he was rather sceptical. And then I came away, 
after shaking hands with him at his doorstep in the dim 
alley-way, with the bar of golden sunlight shining at the 
entrance to the Grand' Place and the noise of the rooks 
cawing on the roof. 

" Au revoir, M'sieur le Peintre, et hon voyage, and re- 
member, ' Ask, and it shall be given, seek and you shall 
find,' " and with these cryptic words, he stood with up- 

61 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

lifted hands, a smile irradiating his fine ascetic face glow- 
ing like that of a saint. Behind the faded black of his 
old soutane I could see his treasures of blue china and an- 
cient cabinets, and a chance light illumined a mirror be- 
hind his head, and aureoled him like unto one of the saints 
behind the great " Jube," and thus I left him. 

And now Dixmude is in formless heaps of ashes and 
burnt timbers. Hardly one stone now remains upon an- 
other. There is no longer a Grand' Place — and the 
very course of the river Yser is changed. 



62 



fips 



6m 



^ ^ PRES as a town grew out of a ru'de sort of strong- 
ly hold built, says M. Vereeke in his " Histoire Mili- 
^^ taire d' Ypres," in the year 900, on a small island in 
the river Yperlee. It was in the shape of a triangle with 
a tower on each corner, and was known to the inhabitants 
as the " Castle of the three Turrets." 

Its establishment was followed by a collection of small 
huts on the banks of the stream, built by those who craved 
the protection of the fortress. They built a rampart of 
earth and a wide ditch to defend it, and to this they added 
from time to time until the works became so extensive that 
a town sprang into being, which from its strategic posi- 
tion on the borders of France soon became of great im- 
portance in the wars that constantly occurred. Prob- 
ably no other Flemish town has seen its defenses so al- 
tered and enlarged as Ypres has between the primitive 
days when the crusading Thierry d' Alsace planted hedges 
of live thorns to strengthen the towers, and the formation 
of the great works of Vauban, We have been so ac- 

65 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

customed to regarding the Fleming as a sluggish boor, 
that it comes in the nature of a surprise when we read of 
the part these burghers, these weavers and spinners, took 
in the great events that distinguished Flemish history. 
" In July, 1302, a contingent of twelve hundred chosen 
men, five hundred of them clothed in scarlet and the 
rest in black, were set to watch the town and castle of 
Courtrai, and the old Roman Broel bridge, during the 
battle of the 'Golden Spurs,' and the following year 
saw the celebration of the establishment of the confra- 
ternity of the Archers of St. Sebastian, which still existed 
in Ypres when I was there in 1910. This was the last 
survivor of the famed, armed societies of archers which 
flourished in the Middle Ages. Seven hundred of these 
men of Ypres embarked in the Flemish ships which so 
harassed the French fleet in the great naval engagement 
of June, 1340." 

Forty years later five thousand men of Ypres fought 
upon the battlefield with the French, on that momentous 
day which witnessed the death of Philip Van Artevelde 
and the triumph of Leliarts. Later, when the Allies laid 
siege to the town, defended by Leliarts and Louis of 
Maele, it was maintained by a force of ten thousand 
men, and on June 8, 1383, these were joined by seventeen 
thousand English and twenty thousand Flemings, these 
latter from Bruges and Ghent. 

66 



YPRES 

At this time the gateways were the only part of the 
fortifications built of stone. The ramparts were of earth, 
planted with thorn bushes and interlaced with beams. 
Outside were additional works of wooden posts and stock- 
ades, behind the dyke, which was also palisaded. The 
English, believing that the town would not strongly resist 
their numbers, tried to carry it by assault. They were 
easily repulsed, to their great astonishment, with great 
losses. 

At last they built three great wooden towers on wheels 
filled with soldiers, which they pushed up to the walls, 
but the valiant garrison swarmed upon these towers, set 
fire to them, and either killed or captured those who 
manned them. 

All the proposals of Spencer demanding the surrender 
of Ypres were met with scorn, and the English were re- 
peatedly repulsed with great losses of men whenever they 
attempted assaults. 

The English turned upon the Flemish of Ghent with 
fury, saying that they had deceived them as to the 
strength of the garrison of Ypres, and Spencer, realizing 
that it was impossible to take the town before the French 
army arrived, retired from the field with his soldiers. 
This left Flanders at the mercy of the French. But now 
ensued the death of Count Louis of Maele (1384) and 
this brought Flanders under the rule of the House of 

67 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

Burgundy, which resulted in prosperity and well nigh 
complete independence for the Flemings, 

The Great Kermesse of Our Lady of the Garden (Notre 
Dame de Thuine) was then inaugurated because the 
townspeople believe that Ypres had been saved by the 
intercession of the Virgin Mary — the word Thuin mean- 
ing in Flemish " an enclosed space, such as a garden plot," 
an allusion to the barrier of thorns which had so well kept 
the enemy away from the walls — a sort of predecessor 
of the barbed-wire entanglements used in the present 
great world war. 

The Kermesse was held by the people of Ypres on the 
first Sunday in August every year, called most affection- 
ately " Thuindag," and while there in 1910 I saw the 
celebration in the great square before the Cloth Hall, and 
listened to the ringing of the chimes; the day being ush- 
ered in at sunrise by a fanfare of trumpets on the parapet 
of the tower by the members of a local association, who 
played ancient patriotic airs with great skill and enthusi- 
asm. 

In the Place de Musee, a quiet, gray corner of this old 
town, was an ancient Gothic house containing a really 
priceless collection of medals and instruments of torture 
used during the terrible days of the Spanish Inquisition. 
I spent long hours in these old musty rooms alone, and I 
might have stolen away whatever took my fancy had I 

68 



YPRES 

been so minded, for the custode left me quite alone to 
wander at will, and the cases containing the seals, parch- 
ments, and small objects were all unfastened. 

I saw the other day another wonderful panorama 
photograph taken from an aeroplane showing Ypres as 
it now is, a vast heap of ruins, the Cloth Hall gutted; 
the Cathedral leveled, and the site of the little old 
museum a vast blackened hole in the earth where a shell 
had landed. The photograph, taken by an Englishman, 
was dated September, 1915. 

The great Hanseatic League, that extensive system of 
monopolies, was the cause of great dissatisfaction and 
many wars because of jealousy and bad feeling. Ypres, 
Ghent, and Bruges, while defending their rights and priv- 
ileges against all other towns, fought among themselves. 
The monopoly enjoyed by the merchant weavers of Ypres 
forbade all weaving for " three leagues around the walls 
of Ypres, under penalty of confiscation of the looms and 
all of the linen thus woven." 

Constant friction was thus engendered between the 
towns of Ypres and Poperinghe, resulting in bloody bat- 
tles and the burning and destruction of much property. 
Even within the walls of the town this bickering went 
on from year to year. When they were not quarreling 
with their neighbors over slights or attacks, either actual 
or fancied, they fought among themselves over the eternal 

69 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

question of capital versus labor. A sharp line was drawn 
between the workingman and the members of the guilds 
who sold his output. The artisans, whose industry con- 
tributed so greatly to the prosperity of these towns, re- 
sented any infringement of their legal rights. The mer- 
chant magistrates were annually elected, and on one oc- 
casion, in 1361, to be exact, because this was omitted, the 
people arose in their might against the governors, who 
were assembled in the Nieuwerck of the Hotel de Ville. 
The Baillie, one Jean Deprysenaere, haughty in his sup- 
posed power, and trusting in his office, as local represen- 
tative of the Court of Flanders, appeared before the in- 
surgent weavers and endeavored to appease them. 
" They fell upon him and slew him " (Vereeke) . Then, 
rushing into the council chamber, they seized the other 
magistrates and confined them in the belfry of the Cloth 
Hall. 

" Then the leaders in council resolved to kill the magis- 
trates, and beheaded the Burgomaster and two sheriffs 
in the place before the Cloth Hall in the presence of 
their colleagues " (Vereeke) . 

Following the custom of the Netherlands, each town 
acted for itself alone. The popular form of government 
was that of gatherings in the market-place where laws 
were discussed and made by and for the people. The 
spirit of commercial jealousy, however, kept them apart 

70 



YPRES 

and nullified their power. Consumed by the thirst for 
commercial, material prosperity, they had no faith in 
each other, no bond of union, each being ready and willing 
to foster its own interest at its rival's expense. Thus 
neither against foreign nor internal difficulties were they 
really united. The motto of modern Belgium, " L'Union 
fait la Force," was not yet invented, and there was no 
great and powerful authority in which they believed and 
about which they could gather. 

This history presents the picture of Ghent assisting an 
army of English soldiers to lay siege to Ypres. So the 
distrustful people dwelt amid perpetual quarreling, trade 
pitted against trade, town against town, fostering weak- 
ness of government and shameful submission in defeat. 
No town suffered as did Ypres during this distracted state 
of affairs in Flanders of the sixteenth century, which saw 
it reduced from a place of first importance to a dead town 
with the population of a village. And so it remained up 
to the outbreak of the world war in 1914. 

This medieval and most picturesque of all the towns of 
Flanders had not felt the effect of the wave of restoration, 
which took place in Belgium during the decade preced- 
ing the outbreak of the world war, owing to the fact that 
its monuments of the past were perhaps finer and in a 
better state of preservation than those of any of the other 
ancient towns. Ypres in the early days had treated the 

71 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

neighboring town of Poperinghe with great severity 
through jealousy, but she in turn suffered heavily at the 
hands of Ghent in 1383-84 when the vast body of weavers 
fled, taking refuge in England, and taking with them 
all hope of the town's future prosperity. 

Its decline .thenceforward was rapid, and it never recov- 
ered its former place in the councils of Flanders. Its two 
great memorials of the olden times were the great Cloth 
Hall, in the Grand' Place, and the Cathedral of Saint 
Martin, both dating from the twelfth and thirteenth cen- 
turies. 

The Cloth Hall, begun by Count Baldwin IX of Flan- 
ders, was perhaps the best preserved and oldest specimen 
of its kind in the Netherlands, and was practically com- 
plete up to the middle of August, 1915, when the great 
guns of the iconoclastic invader shot away the top of the 
immense clock tower, and unroofed the entire structure. 
Its fagade was nearly five hundred feet long, of most se- 
vere and simple lines, and presented a double row of ogi- 
val windows, surmounted by niches containing thirty-one 
finely executed statues of counts and countesses of Fland- 
ers. There were small, graceful turrets at each end, and 
a lofty belfry some two hundred and thirty feet in height 
in the center, containing a fine set of bells connected with 
the mechanism of a carillon. 

The interior of the hall was of noble proportions, run- 
72 




? ^■ 



Xu. .'i. Hue dc D'u-mudc: Yprcs 



great severity 
.......xi heavily at the 

he vast body of weavers 
i taking with them 

- . . iiever recov- 

..nders. Its two 

ere the great Cloth 

Cathedral of Saint 

'rd thirteenth cen- 

kildwin IX of Flan- 

nd oldest specimen 

\ as practically com- 

n 5", when the great 

Hway the top of the 

he entire structure. 

-et long, of most se- 

1 double row of ogi- 

ontaining thirty-one 

ountesses of Fland- 

iitts at each end, and 

>nd thirty feet in height 

>flls connected with 



lis, run- 



•A'yv^(;"(. -.tAassu'wCI v,\> ■■h\'(\ ,^ .o'A 



YPRES 

ning the full length, its walls decorated by a series of 
paintings by two modern Flemish painters, which were 
not of the highest merit, yet good withal. At the market- 
place end was a highly ornate structure called the New 
Work (Nieuwerke) , erected by the burghers as a guild- 
hall in the fifteenth century. This was the first part of 
the edifice to be ruined by a German shell. 

The destruction of this exquisite work of art seems en- 
tirely wanton and unnecessary. It produced no result 
whatever of advantage. There were neither English, 
French, nor Belgian soldiers in Ypres at the time. The 
populace consisted of about ten thousand peaceful peas- 
ants and shopkeepers, who, trusting in the fact that the 
town was unarmed and unfortified, remained in their 
homes. The town was battered and destroyed, leveled in 
ashes. The bombardment destroyed also the great Cathe- 
dral of Saint Martin adjoining the Cloth Hall, which 
dated from the thirteenth century [although the tower 
was not added until the fifteenth century]. It formed 
a very fine specimen of late Gothic, the interior containing 
some fine oak carving and a richly carved and decorated 
organ loft. Bishop Jansenius, the founder of the sect of 
Jansenists, is buried in a Gothic cloister which formed a 
part of the older church that occupied the site. 

Another interesting monument of past greatness was 
the Hotel de Ville, erected in the sixteenth century, and 

73 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

containing a large collection of modern paintings by 
French and Belgian artists. Of this structure not a trace 
remains save a vast blackened pile of crumbled stones and 
mortar. In the market-place now roam bands of half- 
starved dogs in search of food ; not a roof remains intact. 
A couple of sentries pace before the hospital at the end of 
the Grand' Place. A recent photograph in the Illustrated 
London News taken from an aeroplane shows the ruined 
town like a vast honeycomb uncovered, the streets and 
squares filled with debris, the fragments of upstanding 
walls showing where a few months ago dwelt in peace and 
prosperity an innocent, happy people, now scattered to 
the four winds — paupers, subsisting upon charity. 
Their valiant and noble king and queen are living with 
the remnant of the Belgian army in the small fishing vil- 
lage of La Panne on the sand dunes of the North Sea. 

The unique character of the half-forgotten town was 
exemplified by the number of ancient, wooden-faced 
houses to be found in the side streets. The most curious 
of these, perhaps, was that situated near the Porte de 
Lille, which I have mentioned in another page, and which 
noted architects of Brussels and Antwerp vainly peti- 
tioned the State to protect, or to remove bodily the f aqade 
and erect it in one of the vast " Salles " of the Cloth 
Hall. Both MM. Pauwels and Delbeke, the mural paint- 
ers, then engaged in the decorations of the Cloth Hall, 

74 



YPRES 

joined in protests to the authorities against their neglect 
of this remarkable example of medieval construction, but 
all these petitions were pigeonholed, and nothing re- 
sulted but vain empty promises, so the matter rested, and 
now this beautiful house has vanished forever. 

The great mural decorations of the " Halles " were 
nearly completed by MM. Delbeke and Pauwels, when 
they both died within a few months of each other, in 
1891. In these decorations the artists traced the history 
of Ypres from 1187 to 1383, the date of the great siege, 
showing taste and elegance in the compositions, notably 
in that called the " Wedding feast of Mahaut, daughter 
of Robert of Bethune, with Mathias of Lorraine {1314) ." 

One of the panels by M. Pauwels showed most vividly 
the progress of the " Pest," under the title of the " Mort 
d'Ypres " {de Dood van Yperen, Flemish) . It repre- 
sented the " Fossoyeur " calling upon the citizens upon 
the tolling of the great bell of St. Martin's, to bring out 
their dead for burial, 

M. Delbeke's talent was engaged upon scenes illus- 
trating the civil life of the town, the gatherings in cele- 
bration of the philanthropic and intellectual events in its 
remarkable history, a task in which he was successful in 
spite of the carping of envious contemporaries. 

A committee of artists was appointed to examine his 
work, and although this body decided in his favor, it may 

75 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

be that the criticism to which he was subjected hastened 
his death. At any rate the panels remained unfinished, 
no other painter having the courage to carry out the 
projected work. 

The original sketches for these great compositions were 
preserved in the museum of the town, but the detailed 
drawings, some in color, were, up to the outbreak of the 
war in 1914, in the Museum of Decorative Arts in Brus- 
sels, together with the cartoons of another artist, Charles 
de Groux (1870), to whom the decoration of the Halles 
had been awarded by the State in competition. A most 
sumptuous Gothic apartment was that styled the " Salle 
Echevinale," restored with great skill in recent years by a 
concurrence of Flemish artists, members of the Academy. 
Upon either side of a magnificent stone mantel, bearing 
statues in niches of kings, counts and countesses, bishops 
and high dignitaries, were large well executed frescoes by 
MM. Swerts and Guff ens, showing figures of the evange- 
lists St. Mark and St. John, surrounded by myriads of 
counts and countesses of Flanders, from the time of Louis 
de Nevers and Margaret of Artois to Charles the Bold, 
and Margaret of York, whose tombs are in the Cathedral 
at Bruges. The attribution of these frescoes to Melchior 
Broederlam does not, it would seem, accord with the style 
or the date of their production, M. Alph. van den Peere- 

76 




Arcade of the Cloth Hall: Y pres 






?,Tvt^'I -.Wwtt sVUiVj ^iiW ^o a\in'3-vk 







«<^;^^^Sfii' 



^ss- 



y 'ntHiiimtkt. 



.-,=-^ 



YPRES 

boom thinks, and he gives credit for the work to two 
painters who worked in Ypres in 1468 — MM. Pennant 
and Floris Untenhoven. 

In my search for the curious and picturesque, I came, 
one showery day, upon a passageway beneath the old 
belfry which led to the tower of St. Martin's. Here one 
might believe himself back in the Middle Ages. On both 
sides of the narrow street were ancient wooden-fronted 
houses not a whit less interesting or well preserved than 
that front erected in the chamber of the " Halles." This 
small dark street led to a vast and solitary square. On 
one side were lofty edifices called the Colonnade of the 
" Nieuwerck," at the end of which was a quaint vista of 
the Grand' Place. On the other side was a range of 
most wondrous ancient constructions; the conciergerie 
and its attendant offices, bearing finials and gables of 
astonishing richness of character, and ornamented with 
chefs-d'ceuvres of iron-work, marking the dates of erec- 
tion, all of them prior to 1616. In this square not a soul 
appeared, nor was there a sound to be heard save the coo- 
ing of some doves upon a rooftree, although I sat there 
upon a stone coping for the better part of a half hour. 
Then all at once, out of a green doorway next the con- 
ciergerie, poured a throng of children, whose shrill cries 
and laughter brought me back to the present. One won- 

77 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

ders where now are these merry light-hearted little ones, 
who thronged that gray grass-grown square behind the old 
Cloth Hall in 1912. . . . 

In this old square I studied the truly magnificent south 
portal and transept of St. Martin's, the triple portal 
with its splendid polygonal rose window, and its two 
graceful slender side towers, connecting a long gallery 
between the two smaller side portals. One's impression 
of this great edifice is that of a sense of noble proportions, 
rather than ornateness, and this is to be considered re- 
markable when one remembers the different epochs of its 
construction. That the choir was commenced in 1221 is 
established by the epitaph of Hugues, prevot of St. Mar- 
tin's, whose ashes reposed in the church which he built: 
that the first stone of the nave transepts was laid with 
ceremony by Marguerite of Constantinople in 1254; that 
the south portal was of the fifteenth century and that a 
century later the chapel called the doyen toward the south 
wall at the foot of the tower, was erected. The tower 
itself, visible from all parts of the town, was the con- 
ception of Martin Untenhoven of Malines, and re- 
placed a more primitive one in 1433. Of very severe 
character, its great bare bulk rose to an unfinished height 
of some hundred and seventy feet, and terminated in a 
squatty sort of pent-house roof of typical Flemish char- 

78 



YPRES 

acter. It was flanked by four smaller, unfinished towers, 
one at each corner. This tower, one may recall, figures in 
many of the pictures of Jean van Eyck. It is not without 
reason that Schayes, in his " Histoire de I'Architecture en 
Belgique," speaks of the choir of St. Martin's as " one of 
the most remarkable of the religious constructions of the 
epoch in Belgium." Of most noble lines and proportion 
if it were not for the intruding altar screen in the Jesuit 
style, which mars the effect, the ensemble were well-nigh 
perfect. 

Its decoration, too, was remarkable. A fresco at the 
left of the choir, with a portrait of Robert de Bethune, 
Count of Flanders, who died at Ypres in 1322 and was 
buried in the church, was uncovered early in the eighties 
during a restoration; this had been most villainously re- 
painted by a local " artist " ( ?) ; and I mortally offended 
the young priest who showed it to me, by the vehemence 
of my comments. 

The stalls of the choir, in two banks or ranges, twenty- 
seven above, twenty-four below, bore the date of 1 5'98, 
and the signature of d'Urbain Taillebert, a native sculp- 
tor of great merit, who also carved the great Jube 
of Dixmude (see drawing) . Other works of Taillebert 
are no less remarkable, notably the superb arcade with 
the Christ triumphant suspended between the columns at 

79 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

the principal entrance. He was also the sculptor of the 
mausoleum of Bishop Antoine de Hennin, erected in 
1622 in the choir. 

In the pavement before the altar a plain stone marked 
the resting place of the famous Corneille Jansen (Cor- 
nelius Jansenius), seventh Bishop of Ypres, who died 
of the pest the 6th of May, 1638. One recalls that the 
doctrine of Jansen gave birth to the sect of that name 
which still flourishes in Holland. 

Following the Rue de Lille one came upon the old 
tower of St. Pierre, massed among tall straight lines of 
picturesque poplars, its bulk recalling vaguely the belfry 
of the Cloth Hall. In this church was shown a curious 
little picture, representing the devil setting fire to the 
tower, which was destroyed in 1638, but was later rebuilt 
after the original plans. The interior had no dignity 
of style whatever. There were, however, some figures of 
the saints Peter and Paul attributed to Carel Van Yper, 
which merited the examination of connoisseurs. They 
are believed by experts to have been the " volets " of a 
triptych of which the center panel was missing. 

The Place St. Pierre was picturesque and smiling. Fol- 
lowing this route we found on the right at the end of a 
small street the hospital St. Jean, with an octagonal 
tower, which enshrined some pictures attributed to the 
prolific Carel Van Yper, comment upon which would be 

80 



Gateway, Wall, and Old Moat: Y prcs 



^-d 



pres, w 
recalls that r 

:t of ths 



" voiets >^i ii 

lie end ot a 

uld be 



v.'yvu"( -.YttuVJi \^\ i^"''^) 



YPRES 

perhaps out of place here. On the corner of this street 
was a most charming old f agade in process of demolish- 
ment, which we deplored. 

Now we reached the Porte de Lille again and the re- 
mains of the old walls of the town. Again and again 
we followed this same route, each time finding some new 
beauty or hidden antiquity which well repaid us for such 
persistence. Few of the towns of Flanders presented 
such treasures as were to be found in Ypres. Follow- 
ing the walk on the ramparts, past the caserne or infan- 
try barracks, one came upon the place of the ancient 
chateau of the counts, a vast construction under the name 
of " de Zaalhof." Here was an antique building called 
the " Lombard," dated 1616, covered with old iron 
" ancres " and crosses between the high small-paned win- 
dows. 

By the Rue de Beurre one regained the Grand' Place, 
passing through the silent old Place Van den Peereboom 
in the center of which was the statue of the old Burgo- 
master of that name. 

The aspect of this silent grass-grown square behind 
the Cloth Hall was most impressive. Here thronged the 
burghers of old, notably on the occasion of the entry of 
Charles the Bold and his daughter Marguerite, all clad 
in fur, lace, and velvet to astonish the inhabitants, wlio 
instead of being impressed, so outshone the visitors, by 

81 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

their own and their wives' magnificence of apparel, that 
Marguerite was reported to have left the banquet hall in 
pique. The belfry quite dominated the square at the 
eastern angle, where were the houses forming the concier- 
gerie. 

Turning to the right by way of the Chemin de St. Mar- 
tin, one found the ancient Beguinage latterly used by the 
gendarmerie as a station, the lovely old chapel turned 
into a stable ! In this old town were hundreds of remark- 
able ancient houses, each of which merits description in 
this book. But perhaps in this brief and very fragmen- 
tary description the reader may find reason for the au- 
thor's enthusiasm, and agree with him that Ypres was 
perhaps the most unique and interesting of all the de- 
stroyed towns in Flanders, 



82 



(Sotntnttt^0 



(Somminf0 



^I^T was not hard to realize that here we were in the 
mm country of Bras-de-Fer, of Memling, of Cuyp, and 
/Cr Thierry d' Alsace, for, on descending from the halt- 
ing, bumping train at the small brick station, we were 
face to face with a bizarre, bulbous-topped tower rising 
above the houses surrounding a small square, and now 
quite crowded with large, hollow-backed, thick-legged 
Flemish horses, which might have been those of the fol- 
lowers of Thierry gathered in preparation for an on- 
slaught upon one of the neighboring towns. 

It seemed as though any turning might bring us face to 
face with a grim cohort of mounted armed men in steel 
corselet and morion, bearing the banner of Spanish Philip, 
so sinister were the narrow, ill-paved streets, darkened by 
the projecting second stories of the somber, gray-stone 
houses. Rarely was there an open door or window. As 
we passed, our footsteps on the uneven stones awakened 
the echoes. A fine drizzle of rain which began to fall 
upon us from the leaden sky did not tend to enliven us, 
and we hastened toward the small Grand' Place, where I 

85 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

noted on a sign over a doorway the words, " In de Leeuw 
Van Vlanderen " (To the Flemish Lion) , which promised 
at least shelter from the rainfall. Here we remained un- 
til the sun shone forth. 

Commines (Flemish, Komen) was formerly a fortified 
town of some importance in the period of the Great Wars 
of Flanders. It was the birthplace of Philip de Com- 
mines (1445-1509). It was, so to say, one of the iron 
hinges upon which the great military defense system of 
the burghers swung and creaked in those dark days. To- 
day, in these rich fields about the small town, one can find 
no traces of the old-time bastions which so well guarded 
the town from Van Artevelde's assaults. Inside the 
town were scarcely any trees, an unusual feature for 
Flanders, and on the narrow waterways floated but few 
craft. 

The only remarkable thing by virtue of its Renaissance 
style of architecture was the belfry and clock tower, al- 
though some of the old Flemish dwelling houses in the 
market square, projecting over an ogival Colonnade ex- 
tending round one end of the square, and covering a sort 
of footway, were of interest, uplifting their step-like 
gables as a silent but eloquent protest against a posterity 
devoid of style, all of them to the right and left falling 
into line like two wings of stone in order to allow the 
carved front of the belfry to make a better show, and its 

86 



COMMINES 

pinnacled tower to rise the prouder against the sky. 

" One was struck with the ascendency of the religious 
element over all forms of art, and this was a characteristic 
of the Flemings. One was everjrwhere confronted with 
a curious union of religion and war, representations peo- 
pled exclusively by seraphic beings surrounded or accom- 
panied by armed warriors. Everything is adoration, res- 
ignation, incense fumes, psalmody, and crusaders. The 
greatest buildings we saw were ecclesiastical, the richest 
dresses were church vestments, even " the princes and 
burghers accompanied by armed knights remind one of 
ecclesiastics celebrating the Mass. All the women are 
holy virgins, seemingly. The chasm between the ideal 
and the reality itself, however idealized, but by medita- 
tion manifested pictorially." (" The Land of Rubens," 
C.B.Huet). 

We sat for an hour in the small, sooty, tobacco-smelling 
estaminet (from the Spanish estamento — an inn) , and 
then the skies clearing somewhat we fared forth to ex- 
plore the belfry, which in spite of its sadly neglected 
state was still applied to civic use. Some dark, heavy, 
oaken beams in the ceiling of the principal room showed 
delicately carved, fancy heads, some of them evidently 
portraits. At the rear of the tower on the ground floor, 
I came upon a vaulted apartment supported on columns, 
and being used as a storehouse. Its construction was so 

87 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

handsome, it was so beautifully lighted from without, 
as to make one grieve for its desecration; it may have 
served in the olden time as a refectory, and if so was 
doubtless the scene of great festivity in the time of Philip 
de Commines, who was noted for the magnificence of his 
entertainments. 

The Flemish burghers of the Middle Ages first built 
themselves a church; when that was finished, a great hall. 
That of Ypres took more than two hundred years to com- 
plete. How long this great tower of Commines took, I 
can only conjecture. Its semi-oriental pear-shaped (or 
onion-shaped, as you will) tower was certainly of great 
antiquity; even the unkempt little priest whom I ques- 
tioned in the Grand' Place could give me little or no in- 
formation concerning it. Indeed, he seemed to be on the 
point of resenting my questions, as though he thought that 
I was in some way poking fun at him. I presume that it 
was the scene of great splendor in their early days. For 
here a count of Flanders or a duke of Brabant exercised 
sovereign rights, and at such a ceremony as the laying of a 
corner-stone assumed the place of honor, although the 
real authority was with the burghers, and founded upon 
commerce. While granting this privilege, the Flemings 
ever hated autocracy. They loved pomp, but any at- 
tempt to exercise power over them infuriated them. 

" The architecture of the Fleming was the expression of 



.^?-5!,': if??-' 



^e-*'H'?>' '.,-•' 'i'i!fr-'r^:-' ■ 



The Belfry: Commincs 



ed, agr: 



shaped 

).ly of gif 



to 



beon 






v,"MVS^w^«o'_^ •. \v;v'\\'4i\ 'oA'V 






1 .'■ '. -■ - ... 



M 


m 


UK 




^^ 


\ 


- *' ; 


Ei 



COMMINES 

aspiration," says C. B. Huet (" The Land of Rubens ") . 

" The Flemish hall has often the f onn of a church ; art 
history, aiming at classification, ranges it among the 
Gothic by reason of its pointed windows. The Hall us- 
ually is a defenceless feudal castle without moats, with- 
out porticullis, without loopholes. It occupies the cen- 
ter of a market-place. It is a temple of peace, its win- 
dows are as numerous as those in the choirs of that con- 
secrated to the worship of God. 

" From the center of the building uprises an enormous 
mass, three, four, five stories high, as high as the cathedral, 
perhaps higher. It is the belfry, the transparent habita- 
tion of the alarm bell (as well as the chimes) . The bel- 
fry cannot defend itself, a military character is foreign to 
it. But as warden of civic liberty it can, at the approach 
of domination from without, or autocracy uplifting its 
head within, awaken the threatened ones, and call them 
to arms in its own defence. The belfry is thus a symbol 
of a society expecting happiness from neither a dynasty 
nor from a military despotism, but solely from common 
institutions, from commerce and industry, from a citizen's 
life, budding in the shadow of the peaceful church, and 
borrowing its peaceful architecture from it. To the town 
halls of Flanders belonged the place of honor among the 
monuments of Belgian architecture. No other country 
of Europe offered so rich a variety in that respect. 

89 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

" Courtrai replaces Arras; Oudenaarde and Ypres fol- 
low suit. Then come Tournai, Bruges, Ghent, Ant- 
werp, Brussels, Louvain. Primary Gothic, secondary 
Gothic, tertiary Gothic, satisfying every wish. Flanders 
and Brabant called the communal style into life. If ever 
Europe becomes a commune, the communards have but to 
go to Ypres to find motifs from their architects." 

Since this was written, in 1914, many, if not most, of 
these great buildings thus enumerated above, are now in 
ruins, utterly destroyed for all time I 



90 



Jinmtn 



%nm^ 



^^i TINY sleepy town among the fringe of great wil- 
II low trees which marked the site of the ancient 
^^ walls. Belted by its crumbling ramparts, and like 
a quaint gem set in the green enamel of the smiling land- 
scape, it offered a resting place far from the cares and 
noise of the world. 

Quite ignored by the guide books, it had, I found, one 
of the most remarkable belfries to be found in the Nether- 
lands, and a chime of sweet bells, whose melodious sounds 
haunted our memories for days after our last visit in 19 lO. 

There were winding, silent streets bordered by mys- 
teriously closed and shuttered houses, but mainly these 
were small and of the peasant order. On the Grand' 
Place, for of course there was one, the tower sprang from 
a collection of rather shabby buildings, of little or no 
character, but this did not seem to detract from the mag- 
nificence of the great tower. I use the word " great " 
too often, I fear, but can find no other word in the lan- 
guage to qualify these " Campanili " of Flanders. 

This one was embellished with what are known as 
93 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

" ogival arcatures," arranged in zones or ranks, and there 
were four immense turrets, one at each corner, these be- 
ing in turn covered with arcatures of the same character. 
These flanked the large open-work, gilded, clock face. 
Surmounting this upon a platform was a construction in 
the purely Flemish style, containing the chime of bells, 
and the machinery of the carillon, and topping all was 
a sort of inverted bulb or gourd-shaped turret, covered 
with blue slate, with a gilded weathervane about which 
the rooks flew in clouds. 

The counterpart of this tower was not to be found any- 
where in the Netherlands, and one is surprised that it 
was so little known. 

Upon the occasion of our visit the town was given up 
to the heavy and stolid festivities of the "Kermesse," 
which is now of interest here only to the laboring class and 
the small farmers of the region. The center of attrac- 
tion, as we found in several other towns, seemed to be 
an incredibly fat woman emblazoned on a canvas as the 
" Belle Heloise " who was seated upon a sort of throne 
draped in red flannel, and exhibited a pair of extremities 
resembling in size the masts of a ship, to the great won- 
der of the peasants. There were also some shabby 
merry-go-rounds with wheezy organs driven by machin- 
ery, and booths in which hard-featured show women were 
frying wafiles in evil smelling grease. After buying some 

94 



The Towers of St. Winoc: Bergnes 



stolid festivitie- 
here on 



luyv', 



.filter or atcrac- 
■■■ '-petTiei:' to b? 



u pair ot extremities 
'n tn the Enreat won- 
ome sha 

v\'oiae!i Vv ei e 
• liiivin.or 9,ome 



,vVV 




:X,r,i.wLX»2w.(< . 



BERGUES 

of these for the children who stood about with watering 
mouths, we left the " Kermesse " and wandered away 
down a silent street towards a smaller tower rising from 
a belt of dark trees. 

This we found to be the remains of the ancient abbey of 
St. Winoc. A very civil mannered young priest who 
overtook us on the road informed us of this, and volun- 
teered further the information that we were in what was 
undoubtedly the ancient jardin-clos of the Abbey. Of 
this retreat only the two towers standing apart in the 
long grass remained, one very heavy and square, sup- 
ported by great buttresses of discolored brick, the other oc- 
tangular, in stages, and retaining its high graceful stee- 
ple. 

We were unable to gain entrance to either of these tow- 
ers, the doorways being choked with weeds and the debris 
of fallen masonry. [The invaders destroyed both of these 
fine historical remains in November, 1914, alleging that 
they were being used for military observation by the Bel- 
gian army.] These small towns of Flanders had a simple 
dignity of their own which was of great attraction to the 
tourist, who could, without disillusionment, imagine him- 
self back in the dim past. In the wayside inns or estami- 
nets one could extract amusement and proiit listening to 
the peasantry or admiring the sunlight dancing upon the 
array of bottles and glass on the leaden counters, or watch 

95 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

the peasants kneel and cross themselves before the invari- 
able quaint niched figure of the Virgin and Child under 
the hanging lighted lantern at a street corner, the evi- 
dence of the piety of the village, or the throngs of lace- 
capped, rosy-cheeked milkmaids with small green carts 
drawn by large, black, " slobbering " dogs of fierce mien, 
from the distant farms, on their way to market. 

Thus the everyday life of the region was rendered 
poetic and artistic, and all with the most charming uncon- 
sciousness. 



96 



%\ftmtt 



Jltnprt 



aN the midst of a level field to the east of the town 
of Nieuport in 1914 was a high square weather- 
beaten tower, somewhat ruinous, built of stone and 
brick in strata, showing the different eras of construction 
in the various colors of the brick work ranging from light 
reds to dark browns and rich blacks. This tower, half 
built and square topped, belonged to a structure be- 
gun in the twelfth century, half monastery, half church, 
erected by the Templars as a stronghold. Repeatedly at- 
tacked and set on fire, it escaped complete destruction, al- 
though nearly laid in ruins by the English and burghers 
of Ghent in 1383, the year of the famous siege of Ypres. 
During the Wars of 1600, it was an important part of 
the fortifications, and from the platform of its tower the 
Spanish garrison commanded a clear view of the surround- 
ing country and the distance beyond the broad moat, 
which then surrounded the strong walls of Nieuport. 

In plain view from this tower top were the houses of 
Furnes, grouped about the church of Saint Nicolas to the 

99 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

southwest, while to the north the wide belt of dunes, or 
sand hills, defended the plains from the North Sea. 
Nearer were the populous villages of Westende and Lom- 
baerd-Zyde, connected with Nieuport by numerous small 
lakes and canals derived from the channel of the Yser 
river, which flowed past the town on its way to the sea. 
The history of Nieuport, from the terrible days of the 
Spanish invasion down to these days of even worse fate, 
has been pitiable. Its former sea trade after the Spanish 
invasion was never recovered, and its population, which 
was beginning to be thrifty and prosperous up to 1914, 
has now entirely disappeared. Nieuport is now in ashes 
and ruins. When I passed the day there in the summer 
of 1910, it was a sleepy, quiet spot, a small fishing village, 
with old men and women sitting in doorways and on the 
waysides, mending nets, and knitting heavy woolen socks 
or sweaters of dark blue. In the small harbor were the 
black hulls of fishing boats tied up to the quaysides, and 
a small steamer from Ghoole was taking on a cargo of 
potatoes and beets. Some barges laden with wood were 
being pulled through the locks by men harnessed to a long 
tow rope, and a savage dog on one of these barges men- 
aced me with dripping fangs and bloodshot eyes when I 
stopped to talk to the steersman, who sat on the tiller 
smoking a short, evil-smelling pipe, while his " vrouwe " 
was hanging out a heavy wash of vari-colored garments 

100 




ili^' ■•■utmu^ -e^^ ■■' oi'm. «uMMwa 



The Tower of the Templars: Nieuport 



n pitiab' 



md on tli; 






'ith WOO! 



*ot eyes when 1 
i the tiller 



,u)i\mm'A •.■i-vwkvwVY -vsW \o -vi'stoT vv»\'V 



NIEUPORT 

on a line from the staff on the bow to a sweep fastened 
upright to the cabin wall. 

The ancient fortification had long since disappeared — 
those " impregnable walls of stone " which once de- 
fended the town from the assaults of Philip the Second. 
I found with some difficulty a few grass-grown mounds 
where they had been, and only the gray, grim tower of the 
Templars, standing solitary in a turnip field, remained to 
show what had been a mighty stronghold. In the town, 
however, were souvenirs enough to occupy an antiquary 
for years to his content and profit. There was the Cloth 
Hall, with its five pointed low arched doorways from 
which passed in and out the Knights of the Temple 
gathered for the first pilgrimage to the Holy Land. On 
this market square too was the great Gothic Church, one of 
the largest and most important in all Flanders, and on this 
afternoon in the summer of 19 10, I attended a service 
here, while in the tower a bell ringer played the chime 
of famous bells which now lie in broken fragments amid 
the ashes of the fallen tower. 

Here was fought the bloody " Battle of the Dunes," 
between the Dutch and the Spaniards in those dim days 
of long ago, when the stubborn determination of the Neth- 
erlanders overcame the might and fiery valor of the Span- 
ish invaders. 

From time to time the peasants laboring in the fields un- 
101 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

covered bones, broken steel breast-plates, and weapons, 
which they brought to the museum on the Grand' Place, 
and which the sleepy custode showed me with reluctance, 
until I offered him a franc. It is curious that famous 
Nieuport, for which so much blood was shed in those early 
days, should again have been a famous battle ground be- 
tween the handful of valiant soldiers of the heroic King 
Albert and a mighty Teutonic foe. 

The dim gray town with its silent streets, the one time 
home of romance and chivalry, the scene of deeds of 
knightly valor, is now done for forever. It is not 
likely that it can ever again be of importance, for its har- 
bor is well-nigh closed by drifting sand. But I shall 
always keep the vision I had of it that summer day, in its 
market place, its gabled houses against the luminous sky, 
its winding streets, and narrow byways across which the 
roofs almost touch each other. The ancient palaces are 
now in ruins, and the peaceful population scattered 
abroad, charges upon the charity of the world. Certainly 
a woeful picture in contrast to the content of other days. 

The vast green plains behind the dunes, or sand hills, 
extend unbrokenly from here to the French frontier, spire 
after spire dominating small towns, and wind-mills, are 
the objects seen. To some the flatness is most monoto- 
nous, but to those who find pleasure in the paintings of 
Cuyp, the country is very picturesque. The almost end- 

102 




Tlic TuicH Htdl — Hall uf the hiui/hts Templar : Situ purl 





rand' Place, 




h reluctance, 




.ous that famous 




hed in those early 




nattle ground be- 




j heroic King 




the one Mu. 




of deeds of 




(tance, tor itshar- 


y anil' 


- 1 But I shall 


id of It 


Tier day, in its 




luminou; 


cs, and nari!- 


OSS which tiic 


, 


!t palaces are 




on scattered 




Certainly 




:her days. 




UA ,sand hills, 




frontier, spire 




1 monoto- 




intings of 




Imost end- 



\-uH\^uMsyi •.•vuV^mvA: -aAvvviv'A -yiW \o 5\nVi. — W' -^VV 




"'SSiSlFiSl 




¥^ 







NIEUPORT 

less succession of green, well-cultivated fields and farm- 
steads is most entertaining, and the many canals winding 
their silvery ways through the country, between rows of 
pollards ; the well kept though small country houses em- 
bowered in woody enclosures; the fruitful orchards in 
splendid cultivation ; the gardens filled with fair flowers 
and the " most compact little towns " — these give the 
region a romance and attraction all its own. 

Here and there is a hoary church erected in forgotten 
times on ground dedicated to Thor or Wodin. This part 
of the country bordering the fifty mile stretch of coast 
line on the North Sea was given over latterly to the popu- 
lous bathing establishments and their new communities, 
but the other localities, such as Tournai, Courtrai, Ou- 
denaarde or Alost, were seldom visited by strangers, 
whose advent created almost as much excitement as it 
would in Timbuctoo. It was not inaccessible, but the 
roads were not good for automobiles; they were mainly 
paved with rough " Belgian " blocks of stone, high in the 
center, with a dirt roadway on either side, used by the 
peasants and quite rutty. 

A walking tour for any but the hardiest pedestrian was 
out of the question, so I was told that the best way for a 
" bachelor " traveler was to secure transportation on the 
canal boats. This was the warning that our kind hearted 
landloitd in Antwerp gave us, after vainly endeavor- 

103 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

ing to discourage us from leaving him for such a tour. 

The canals, however, are not numerous enough in this 
region, I found, and besides there are various other dis- 
advantages which I leave to the reader's imagination. 

In addition to the main lines of the State Railway, 
there were what are called " Chemins-de-fer-vicinaux," 
small narrow gauge railways which traversed Belgium in 
all directions. On these the fares were very reasonable, 
and they formed an ideal way in which to study the 
country and the people. There were first, second and 
third class carriages on these, hung high on tall wheels, 
which looked very unsafe, but were not really so. The 
classes varied only in the trimming of the windows, and 
quality of the cushions on the benches. Rarely if ever, 
were those marked " I Klasse " used. Those of the sec- 
ond class were used sometimes; but the third class cars 
were generally very crowded with peasantry, who while 
invariably good humored and civil were certainly evil 
smelling, and intolerant of open windows and fresh air. 
The men and boys generally smoked a particularly vile- 
smelling black tobacco, of which they seemed very fond, 
and although some of the cars were marked " Niet 
rooken " (no smoking) no one seemed to object to the 
fumes. 

Here one seldom saw the purely Spanish type of face 
so usual in Antwerp and Brabant. The race seemed 

104 



Tower in the Grand'' Place: Nieuport 



call wheels. 



Rarely if ^'ver, 



iy f'vil 

idOWS 3] 



ace seemed 



VVO^\VS->iy> •.'VU1\H \\«\V\lJ ^S\t iVV Ti'KtVV 



NIEUPORT 

purer, and the peasants used the pure Flemish tongue. 
Few of the elders I found spoke French fluently, although 
the children used it freely to each other, of course under- 
standing and speaking Flemish also. 

There were various newspapers published in the Flem- 
ish language exclusively. These, however, were very 
primitive, given over entirely to purely local brevities, 
and the prices of potatoes, beets and other commodities, 
and containing also a " feuilleton " of interest to the 
farmers and laborers. 

There were several " organs " of the Flemish Patriotic 
party devoted to the conservation and preservation of 
the Flemish language and the ancient traditions, which 
were powerful among the people, although their circula- 
tion could not have been very profitable. The peasantry 
in truth were very ignorant, and knew of very little be- 
yond their own parishes. The educational standard of 
the people of West Flanders was certainly low, and it 
was a matter of comment among the opponents of the es- 
tablished church, that education being in the hands of the 
clergy, they invariably defeated plans for making it com- 
pulsory. But nevertheless, the peasantry were to all ap- 
pearances bothifontented and fairly happy. 

As their wants' were few and primitive, their living was 
cheap. Their fare was coffee, of which they consumed a 
great deal, black bread, salt pork and potatoes. The use 

105 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

of oleomargarine was universal in place of butter. They 
grew tobacco in their small gardens for their own use, 
and also, it is whispered, smuggled it [and gin] over the 
border into France. They worked hard and long from 
five in the morning until seven or eight in the evening. 

The Flemish farmhouse was generally well built, if 
somewhat untidy looking, with the pigstys and out build- 
ings in rather too close proximity for comfort. There 
was usually a large living room with heavy sooty beams 
overhead, and thick walls pierced by quaint deeply 
sunken windows furnished often with seats. These pic- 
turesque rooms often contained " good finds " of the old 
Spanish furniture, and brass; but as a rule the dealers had 
long since bought up all the old things, replacing them by 
" brummagem," — modern articles shining with cheap 
varnish. 

The peasants themselves in their everyday clothes cer- 
tainly did not impress the observer greatly. They were 
not picturesque, they wore the sabot or " Klompen," yel- 
low varnished, and clumsy in shape. Their stockings 
were coarse gray worsted. Their short trousers were us- 
ually tied with a string above the calf, and they wore a 
sort of smock, sometimes of linen unbleached, or of a shin- 
ing sort of dark purple thin stuff. 

The usual headgear was for the men a cap with a glazed 
peak and for the women and girls a wide flapped em- 

106 



NIEUPORT 

broidered linen cap, but this headgear was worn only in 
the country towns and villages. Elsewhere the costume 
was fast disappearing. On Sundays when dressed in 
their holiday clothes these peasants going to or returning 
from mass, looked respectable and fairly prosperous, and 
it was certainly clear that although poor in worldly goods, 
these animated and laughing throngs were far from being 
unhappy or dissatisfied with life as they found it in West 
Flanders. 



107 



tM 



Slo0t 



Jifc^HE ancient Hotel de Ville on the Grand' Place 
iU was unique, not for its great beauty, for it had 
^■^ none, but for its quaintness, in the singular com- 
bination of several styles of architecture. Without go- 
ing into any details its attraction was in what might be 
called its venerable coquettishness, — bizarre, one might 
have styled it, but that the word conveys some hint of 
lack of dignity. One is at a loss just how to characterize 
its attractiveness. Against the sky its towers and min- 
arets held one's fancy by their very lightness and airi- 
ness, the lanterns and fleches presupposing a like grace 
and proportion in the edifice below. The great square 
belfry at one side seemed to shoulder aside the structure 
with its beautiful Renaissance fagade and portal and 
quite dominate it. 

My note book says that it dated from the fifteenth 
century, and its appearance certainly bore evidence of 
this statement. It had been erected in sections at various 
periods, and these periods were marked in the various 
courses of brick, showing every variety of tone of dull 

111 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

reds, buffs, and mellow purplish browns. The effect was 
quite delightful. The tower contained a fine carillon of 
bells arranged on a rather bizarre platform, giving 
a most quaint effect to the turret which surmounted it. 
The face of the tower bore four niches, two at each side 
of the center and upper windows, and these contained 
time worn statues of the noble counts of Alost. On the 
wall below was a tablet bearing the inscription " Ni 
Espoir, Ni Craint," and this I was told referred either 
to the many sieges which the town suffered, or a pestilence 
which depopulated the whole region. A huge gilt clock 
face shone below the upper gallery, at each corner of 
which sprang a stone gargoyle. 

The old square upon which this tower was placed was 
quite in keeping with it. There were rows of gabled 
stone houses of great antiquity, still inhabited, stretch- 
ing away in an array of fagades, gables, and most fan- 
tastic roofs, all of mellow toned tile, brick and stone. 

Thierry Moertens, who was a renowned master printer 
of the Netherlands, was born here, and is said to have 
established in Alost the " very first printing house in 
Flanders." From this press issued a translation of the 
Holy Bible, which was preserved in the Museum of Brus- 
sels, together with other fine specimens of his skill. A 
very good statue in bronze to this master printer was in 
the center of the market place, and on the occasion of my 

112 








The Town Hall: Alost 



AiNJL>Jl,11L>j 

as 

latfonn, giving 

nounted it. 

T wo at each side 

these contained 

-i Alost. On th'= 

he inscripti. 

M referred tit. ;. 

Mner of 

v.<iS placed vvai 
rows of gabled 
.habited, stretch- 
, and most f ^ 

- and stone. 

d master prn • '- 
' is said 
inting housv. ^ 

— '-^tion of the 
:am of Br:-" 



Hq>\\. -.UaW. ntao'V ^sVY 




?„,1|.IU 






ALOST 

last visit, there was a sort of carnival in the town, with 
a great gathering of farmers and merchants and their 
families from the surrounding country all gathered about 
the square, which was filled with wagons, horses, booths, 
and merry-go-rounds, above which the statue of the old 
master printer appeared in great dignity. There was 
a great consumption of beer and waffles at the small 
estaminets, and the chimes in the belfry played popu- 
lar songs at intervals to the delight of these simple happy 
people, all unaware of the great catastrophe of the war 
into which they were about to be plunged. 

A disastrous conflagration destroyed most of Alost in 
1360, and thereafter history deals with the fury of the 
religious wars conducted by the Spanish against Alost, a 
most strongly fortified town. The story of the uniting 
of these Spanish troops under the leadership of Juan de 
Navarese is well known. Burning and sacking and 
murder were the sad lot of Alost and its unfortunate citi- 
zens, who had hardly recovered, ere the Duke d'Alencon 
arrived before the walls with his troops, bent upon mis- 
chief. The few people remaining after his onslaught 
died like flies during the plague which broke out the fol- 
lowing year, and the town bid fair to vanish forever. 

Rubens painted a large and important picture based 
upon the destruction of Alost, and this work was hanging 
in the old church of St. Martin just before the outbreak 

113 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

of the war in 1914. Its fate is problematical, for St. Mar- 
tin's Church was razed to the ground in the bombard- 
ment in 1914-15, the charge being the usual one that the 
tower was used for military purposes by the French. 

This old church with its curious bulbous tower cap was 
at the end of a small street, and my last view of it was 
on the occasion of a church fete in which some dignitaries 
were present, for I saw them all clad in scarlet and pur- 
ple walking beneath silken canopies attended by priests 
bearing lighted lanterns (although the sun was shining 
brightly at the time) and acolytes swinging fragrant 
smoking censers. We were directed to a rather shabby 
looking hostelry, over the door of which was an embla- 
zoned coat of arms of Flanders, where we were assured 
we could get " dejeuner " before leaving the town. 

As usual, a light drizzle came on, and the streets be- 
came deserted. The hotel was a wretched one and the 
meal furnished us was in character with it. We were 
waited on by a sour, taciturn old man who bore a dirty 
towel on his arm, as a sort of badge of office, I presume. 
He nodded or shook his head as the case might demand, 
but not a word could I extract from him. At the close 
of our meal, which we dallied over, waiting for the rain 
to cease, I called for the bill, which was produced after a 
long wait, and proved to be, as I anticipated, excessive. 
We had coffee and hot milk and some cold chicken and 

114 



ALOST 

salad. This repast, for two, came to twelve francs. And 
as the " chicken " had reached its old age long before, and 
the period of its roasting must have taken place at an un- 
certain date, this, together with the fact that the lettuce 
was wilted, placed these items upon the proscribed list 
for us. The coffee and hot milk, however, was good and, 
thus revived and rested, I paid the bill without protest, 
and having retained the carriage which we hired at the 
station, I bundled our belongings into it. I had resolved 
not to tip the surly old fellow, but a gleam in his eye made 
me hesitate. Then I weakened and gave him a franc. 
To my amazement he said in excellent English: "I 
thank you, sir; you are a kind, good and patient man, and 
madam is a most charming and gracious lady. I am sorry 
your breakfast was so bad, but I can do nothing here; 
these people are impossible; but it is no fault of mine." 
And shaking his head he vanished into the doorway of the 
hotel. Driving away, I glanced up at the windows, 
where behind the curtains I thought I saw several faces 
watching us furtively. It might be that we had missed 
an adventure in coming away. Had I been alone I should 
have chanced it, for the old waiter interested me with 
his sudden confidence and his command of English. But 
whatever his story might have been, it must ever be to 
me a closed book. Quaint Alost among the trees is now 
a heap of blackened ruins. 

115 



doartmi 



(Sowtrat 



^■MHE two large and impressive stone towers flanking 
fl^U a bridge of three arches over the small sluggish 
^■■^ river Lys were those of the celebrated Broel, dat- 
ing from the fourteenth century. The towers were called 
respectively the " Speytorre " and the " Inghelbrug- 
torre." The first named on the south side of the river 
formed part of the ancient " enceinte " of the first cha- 
teau of Philip of Alsace, and was erected in the twelfth 
century, and famed with the chateau of Lille, as the 
most formidable strongholds of Flanders. The " Inghel- 
brugtorre " was erected in 1411-13, and strongly resem- 
bles its sister tower opposite. It was furnished with loop- 
holes for both archers and for " arquebusiers," as well 
as openings for the discharge of cannon and the casting 
of molten pitch and lead upon the heads of besiegers 
after the fashion of warfare as conducted during the wars 
of the Middle Ages. The Breton soldiers under Charles 
the Eleventh attacked and almost razed this great strong- 
hold in 1382. 
A sleepy old custode whom we aroused took us down 
119 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

into horrible dungeons, where, with a dripping tallow can- 
dle, he showed us some iron rings attached to the dripping 
walls below the surface of the river where prisoners of 
state were chained in former times, and told us that the 
walls here were three or four yards thick. The town was 
one of beauty and great charm, and here we stopped for 
a week in a most delightfully kept small hotel on the 
square, which was bordered with fine large trees, both lin- 
den and chestnut. 

The town was famed in history for the Great Battle of 
the Spurs which took place outside the walls, in the year 
1302, on the plains of Groveninghe. History mentions 
the fact that " seven hundred golden spurs were picked 
up afterwards on the battlefield and hung in the cathe- 
dral." These we were unable to locate. 

The water of the Lys, flowing through the town and 
around the remains of the ancient walls, was put to prac- 
tical use by the inhabitants in the preparation of flax, for 
which the town was renowned. 

It ranked with the old city of Bruges in importance up 
to 1914, when it had some thirty-five thousand inhabi- 
tants. In the middle of the beflowered Grand' Place 
stood a quaint brick belfry containing a good chime of 
bells, and on market days when surrounded with the 
farmers' green wagons and the lines of booths about 
which the people gathered chaffering, its appearance was 

120 





The Belfry: Courtrai 



WERS vNDERS 

inpping tallow can- 

1 1 . - 1 ! ■ 

T:g 
....... , „ Jf 

md told us that the 
The to\ 

■ ■ ;;ea lor 

.- ._::__ ;)n the 
• trees, bt 

tne L>reat batue o^ 

e walls, in the year 

History mentions 

ere picked 

g in the cathe- 

u the tow 

//as put t 

' of flax, lor 

( importance ud 
tousand 



ths about 
ppearance was 



snt^Two'J •.\5;-v'\ha. ^iVY 



COURTRAI 

picturesque enough to satisfy anyone, even the most blase 
of travelers. The belfry had four large gilt clock faces, 
and its bells could be plainly seen through the windows 
hanging from the huge beams. On the tower were gilded 
escutcheons, and a couple of armor-clad statues in niches. 
There was a fine church dedicated to Notre Dame, which 
was commenced by Baldwin in 1 199, and a very beautiful 
" Counts Chapel " with rows of statues of counts and 
countesses of Flanders whose very names were forgotten. 

Here was one of the few remaining " Beguinages " of 
Flanders, which we might have overlooked but for the 
kindness of a passerby who, seeing that we were strangers, 
pointed out the doorway to us. 

On either hand were small houses through the windows 
of which one could see old women sitting bowed over 
cushions rapidly moving the bobbins over the lace pat- 
terns. A heavy black door gave access to the Beguinage, 
a tiny retreat, ISIoye de Silence, inaugurated, tradition 
says, in 1238, by Jean de Constantinople, who gave it as 
a refuge for the Sisters of St. Bogga. And here about a 
small grass grown square in which was a statue of the 
saint, dwelt a number of self-sacrificing women, bound 
by no vow, who had consecrated their lives to the care 
of the sick and needy. 

We spent an hour in this calm and fragrant retreat, 
where there was no noise save the sweet tolling of the con- 

121 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

vent bell, and the cooing of pigeons on the ridge pole of 
the chapel. 

In the square before the small station was a statue, 
which after questioning a number of people without re- 
sult, I at length found to be that of Jean Palfyn who, my 
informant assured me, was the inventor of the forceps, 
and expressed surprise that I should be so interested in 
statuary as to care " who it was." He asked me if I was 
not English and when I answered that I was an American, 
looked somewhat dazed, much as if I had said " New Zea- 
lander " or " Kamschatkan," and was about to ask me 
some further question, but upon consideration thought 
better of it, and turned away shrugging his shoulders. 

To show how well the river Lys is loved by the peo- 
ple, I quote here a sort of prose poem by a local poet, one 
Adolph Verriest. It is called " Het Leielied." 

" La Lys flows over the level fields of our beautiful 
country, its fecund waters reflecting the blue of our won- 
drous Flemish landscape. Active and diligent servant, it 
seems to work ever to our advantage, multiplying in its 
charming sinuosities its power for contributing to our 
prosperity, accomplishing our tasks, and granting our 
needs. It gives to our lives ammunition and power. 
The noise of busy mills and the movement of bodies of 
workmen in its banks is sweet music in our ears, in tune 
to the rippling of its waters. 

122 



COURTRAI 

" A silver ribbon starred with the blue corn-flower, the 
supple textile baptised in its soft waters is transformed 
by the hand of man into cloudy lace, into snowy linen, 
into fabrics of filmy lightness for my lady's wear, La Lys, 
name significant and fraught with poetry for us — giv- 
ing life to the germ of the flax which it conserves through 
all its life better than any art of the chemist in the secret 
chambers of his laboratory. 

" Thanks to this gracious river, our lovely town excels 
in napery and is known throughout all the world. In 
harvest time the banks of the Lys are thronged with 
movement, the harvesters in quaint costumes, their bodies 
moving rhythmically to the words of the songs they sing, 
swinging the heavy bundles of flax from the banks to the 
level platforms, where it is allowed to sleep in the water, 
and later the heavy wagons are loaded to the cadence of 
other songs appropriate to the work. Large picturesque 
colored windmills wave their brown velvety hued sails 
against the piled up masses of cloud, and over all is in- 
tense color, life and movement. 

" The river plays then a most important part in the life 
on the Flemish plains about Courtrai, giving their daily 
bread to the peasants, and lending poetry to their exis- 
tence. So, O Lys, our beautiful benefactor, we love 
you." 

At this writing (March, 1916) Courtrai is still occu- 
123 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

pied by the troops of the German Kaiser, and with the 
exception of the destruction of the Broel towers, the 
church of St. Martin, and the Old Belfry in the market 
place, the town is said to be " intact." 

Whenever possible we traveled through the Flemish 
littoral on the small steam trams, " chemins-de-f er-vici- 
naux," as they are called in French, in the Flemish tongue 
" Stoomtram," passing through fertile green meadows 
dotted with fat, sleek, black and white cows, and em- 
bossed with shining silvery waterways connecting the 
towns and villages. We noticed Englishy cottages of 
white stucco and red tiled roofs, amid well kept fields and 
market gardens in which both men and women seemed 
to toil from dawn to dewy evening. Flanders before 
the war was simply covered with these light railways. 
The little trains of black carriages drawn by pufSng 
covered motors, discharging heavy black clouds of evil- 
smelling smoke and oily soot, rushed over the country 
from morning until night, and the clanging of the motor- 
man's bell seemed never ending. 

To see the country thus was a privilege, and was most 
interesting, for one had to wait in the squares of the small 
towns, or at other central places until the corresponding 
motor arrived before the journey could proceed. Here 
there was a sort of exchange established where the farmers 

124 




The Broi'l Towers: Courtrai 



•I lied in 



X tiled ro 



corresponding 
Here 



Ja-vV\«oO •. A-v'vwo' V Vjovii vA'V' 



COURTRAI 

compared notes as to the rise or fall in commodities, or 
perchance the duty upon beets and potatoes. 

Loud and vehement was the talk upon these matters; 
really, did one not know the language, one might have 
fancied that a riot was imminent. 

One morning we halted at a small village called Ghe- 
luwe, where the train stopped beside a whitewashed 
wall, and everyone got out, as the custom is. There 
seemed no reason for stopping here, for we were at some 
distance from the village, the spire of which could be seen 
above a belt of heavy trees ahead. The morning was 
somewhat chilly, and the only other occupant of the com- 
partment was a young cleric with a soiled white necktie. 
He puffed away comfortably at a very thin, long, and 
evil-smelling " stogie " which he seemed to enjoy im- 
mensely, and which in the Flemish manner he seemed 
to eat as he smoked, eyeing us the while amicably though 
absent mindedly, as if we were far removed from his 
vicinity. As we neared the stopping place, two very jolly 
young farmer boys raced with t-he train in their quaint 
barrow-like wagon painted a bright green, and drawn 
by a pair of large dogs who foamed and panted past us 
" ventre a terre," with red jaws and flopping tongues. 

Had we not known of this breed of dogs we might have 
fancied, as many strangers do, that Flemish dogs are 

125 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

badly treated, but this is not the case. These dogs are 
very valuable, worth sometimes as much as five hun- 
dred francs (about $100). 

Inspections of these dogs are held regularly by the au- 
thorities. The straps and the arrangement of the girths 
are tested lest they should chafe the animal, and, I am 
told, the law now requires that a piece of carpet be carried 
for the animal to lie upon when resting, and a drinking 
bowl also has been added to the equipment of each cart. 
The dogs do not suffer. They are bred for the cart, 
and are called " chiens de traite" so that the charge of 
cruelty upon the part of ignorant tourists may be dis- 
missed as untrue. There is a society for the prevention 
of cruelty to animals, and it is not unusual to see its 
sign displayed in the market places, with the caution 
" Traitez les animaux avec douceur!'' Rarely if ever is 
a case brought into court by the watchful police. 

The young cleric gazed at us inquiringly, as if he ex- 
pected to hear us exclaim about the cruelty to animals, 
but catching his eye I smiled, and said something about 
" ces bons chiens^ at which he seemed relieved, and 
nodded back grinning, but he did not remove the stogie 
from his mouth. 

Priests in Flanders seemed to enjoy much liberty of 
action, and do things not possible elsewhere. For in- 
stance, at Blankenberghe, a fashionable watering place on 

126 



COURTRAI 

the coast, I saw a prosperous, well-fed one (if I may so 
characterize him without meaning any offense) dining 
at the Great Gasthof on the digue, who after finishing his 
filet aux champignons, with a bottle of Baune superior, 
ordered his " demi tasse " with fine champagne, and an 
Havana cigar which cost him not less than three francs 
(sixty cents) which he smoked like a connoisseur while 
he listened to the fine military band playing in the Kiosk. 
And why not, if you please? 

We remained for nearly twenty minutes beside this 
white wall at the roadside, the animated discussions of the 
farmers continuing, for the group was constantly aug- 
mented by fresh arrivals who meant to travel with us or 
back to the town from which we had come. It was here 
that we saw the first stork in Flanders, where indeed they 
are uncommon. This one had a nest in a large tree 
nearby. One of the boys shied a small stone at him 
as he flapped overhead, but, I think, without any idea of 
hitting him. The peasants assembled here eyed us nar- 
rowly. They probed me and my belongings with eyes of 
corkscrew penetration, but since this country of theirs was 
a show place to me, I argued that I had no right to object 
to their making in return a show of me. But such scru- 
tiny is not comfortable, especially if one is seated in a nar- 
row compartment, and the open-mouthed vis a vis gazes 
at one with steely bluish green unwinking eyes — some- 

127 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

what red rimmed. Especially if such scrutiny is accom- 
panied by free comments upon one's person, delivered in 
a voice so pitched as to convey the information to all the 
other occupants, and mayhap the engine driver ahead. 

The other train at length arrived, there was an inter- 
change of occupants and then we proceeded amid heavy 
clouds of thick black smoke which, for a time, the wind 
blew with us. Across the tilled fields are narrow paths 
leading to dykes and roads. There are many green 
ditches filled with water and in them we could see rather 
heavy splashes from time to time. These we discovered 
were made by large green bull frogs — really monsters 
they were, too. Of course we were below the sea level 
here, but one cannot credit the old story about the boy 
who plugged the dyke with his thumb, thereby saving the 
whole country. 

The dykes are many feet high and as the foundation is 
composed of heavy black stones, then layers of great red 
bricks and tiles, and finally turf and large willow branches 
interlaced most cunningly like giant basket work, such a 
story is impossible. 

My vis a vis, all the while regarding me unwinkingly, 
overheard me speak to A — , in English. 

Then he slowly took the stogie from his mouth and ejac- 
ulated, " Ach — Engelsch! — Do it vjell met you?" 

I replied that it certainly did. 
128 



COURTRAI 

"And met Madame?" 

I nodded. 

" Alsf u blieff mynheer — ^?V," he said. Then he 
changed his seat and thereafter related to the others that 
he had conversed with the strangers, who were English, 
and were traveling for pleasure, being enormously rich. 
I think thereafter he enjoyed the reputation of being an 
accomplished linguist. So, pleasantly did we amble 
along the narrow little steam tramway through luxurious 
green fields and smiling fertile landscape of the Flemish 
littoral in our well rewarded search for the quaint and 
the unusual. 

The Gothic Town Hall, a remarkable construction on 
the Grand' Place, and erected 1526, has been restored 
with a great amount of good taste in recent years, and the 
statues on its fagade have been replaced with such skill 
that one is not conscious of modern work. 

The great Hall of the Magistrates on the ground floor, 
with its magnificent furniture, and the admirable modern 
mural paintings by the Flemish artists Guffens and 
Severts (1875) was worth a journey to see. The most 
noteworthy of these paintings represented the " Depar- 
ture of Baldwin IX," Count of Flanders, at the begin- 
ning of the Fourth Crusade in 1202, and the "Consul- 
tation of the Flemish, before the great Battle of the 
Spurs " in 1302. 

129 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

In this chamber is a remarkable Renaissance mantel- 
piece, which is embellished with the arms of the Allied 
Towns of Bruges and Ghent, between which are the 
standard bearers of the doughty Knights of Courtrai, 
and two statues of the Archduke Albert and his Lady, all 
surrounding a statue of the Holy Virgin. 

On the upper floor is the Council Chamber, in which is 
another mantelpiece hardly less ornate and interesting, 
and executed in what may be called the " flamboyant " 
manner in rich polychrome. It is dated 1527 and was 
designed by (one of the) Keldermans (?). 

It has rows or ranges of statuary said to represent both 
the Vices and the Virtues. Below are reliefs indicating 
the terrible punishment inflicted upon those who trans- 
gress. Statues of Charles V, the Infanta Isabella, and 
others are on corbels. 

Very large drawn maps of the ancient town and its de- 
pendencies cover the walls, and these are dated 1641.* 

* Those who are interested in the subject are referred to C. Lemonnier's 
" Histoire des Beaux Arts en Belgique " (Brussels, 1881), E. Hessling's 
" La Sculpture Beige Contemporaire " (Berlin, 1903), Destree's " Renais- 
sance of Sculpture in Belgium," Crowe and Cavalcaselle's " Early Flemish 
Painters" (1857). 



130 



Swrnottd^ (©fttdFrmond?) 



8!ninott(if (Bi^ttkmottW 



STRANGE half deserted little town on the right 



MM bank of the river Scheldt, clustered about a 
^'^ bridge, on both sides of a small sluggish stream 
called the " Dendre," where long lines of women were 
washing clothes the live-long day, and chattering like 
magpies the while. A Grand' Place, with heavy trees 
at one side, and on the other many small estaminets 
and drinking shops. That was Termonde. My note 
book says " Population 10,000, town fortified; forbidden 
to make sketches outside the walls, which are fortifica- 
tions. Two good pictures in old church of Notre Dame, 
by Van Dyck, ' Crucifixion ' and an ' Adoration of the 
Shepherds ' (1635). Fine Hotel de Ville, with five ga- 
bles and sculptured decoration. Also belfry of the four- 
teenth century." 

Termonde is famed throughout Flanders as the birth- 
place of the " Four sons of Aymon," and the exploits of 
the great horse Bayard. The legend of the Four Sons 
of Aymon is endeared to the people, and they never tire 
of relating the story in song as well as prose. Indeed 

133 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

this legend is perhaps the best preserved of all through- 
out Flanders. It dates from the time of Charlemagne, 
the chief of the great leaders of Western Europe, whose 
difficulty in governing and keeping in subjection and 
order his warlike and turbulent underlords and vassals 
is a matter of history known to almost every schoolboy. 

Among these vassal lordlings, whose continued raids 
and grinding exactions caused him most anxious mo- 
ments, was a certain Duke (Herzog) called Aymon, who 
had four sons, named Renault, Allard, Guichard, and 
Ricard, all of most enormous stature and prodigious 
strength. Of these Renault was the tallest, the strong- 
est, the most agile, and the most cunning. In height he 
measured what would correspond to sixteen feet, " and 
he could span a man's waist with his hand, and lifting him 
in the air, squeeze him to death." This was one of his 
favorite tricks with the enemy in battle. 

Aymon had a brother named Buves who dwelt in Aig- 
remont, which is near Huy, and one may still see there 
the castle of Aymon, who was also called the Wild Boar 
of the Ardennes. This brother Buves in a fit of anger 
against Charlemagne for some fancied slight, sent an in- 
sulting message to the latter, refusing his command to 
accompany him on his expedition against the Saracens, 
which so exasperated Charlemagne that he sent one of 
his sons to remonstrate with Buves and if need be, to 

134 



TERMONDE (DENDERMONDE) 

threaten him with vengeance, in case he persisted in re- 
fusing. Buves was ready, and without waiting to receive 
his message, he met the messenger half way and promptly 
murdered him. 

Then Charlemagne, in a fury, sent a large and power- 
ful body of men to punish Buves, who was killed in the 
battle which took place at Aigremont. Thereupon the 
four sons of Aymon met and over their swords swore 
vengeance against Charlemagne, and betook themselves 
to the fastnesses of the Ardennes, in which they built for 
themselves the great Castle of Montfort which is said to 
have been even stronger than that called Aigremont. 

On the banks of the river Ourthe may still be seen the 
great gray bulk of its ruins. About this stronghold they 
constructed high walls, and there they sent out challenges 
defying the great Emperor. 

Now each of the four sons had his own fashion of fight- 
ing. Renault fought best on horseback, and to him 
Maugis son of Buves brought a great horse named Bayard 
("Beiaard" in Flemish) of magic origin, possessed of 
demoniac powers, among which was the ability to run like 
the wind and never grow weary. Here in this strong- 
hold the four sons of Aymon dwelt, making occasional 
sallies against the vassals of Charlemagne, until at length 
the Emperor gathered a mighty force of soldiers and 
horses and engines and scaling ladders, and, surroundmg 

135 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

the stronghold, at length succeeded in capturing it. 

Tradition says that among Charlemagne's retinue was 
Aymon himself, and intimates that it was by the father's 
treachery that the four mighty sons were almost captured, 
but at any rate the great castle of Montfort was reduced 
to ashes and ruin, and only the fact of Renault's taking 
the other brothers on the back of the wondrous horse Bay- 
ard saved them all from the Emperor's fury. So they 
escaped into Gascony, where they independently attacked 
the Saracens and drove them forth and extended their 
swords to the King of Gascony, Yon, who treacherously 
delivered them in chains over to Charlemagne. These 
chains they broke and threw in the Emperor's face, fight- 
ing their way to freedom with their bare hands. 

History thereafter is silent as to their end. Of Ren- 
ault it is known only that he became a friar at Cologne, 
where his skill and strength were utilized by the authori- 
ties in building the walls, and that one day while at 
work, some masons whom he had offended crept up be- 
hind him and pushed him off a great height into the River 
Rhine, and thus he was drowned. Years afterward the 
Church canonized him, and in Westphalia at Dortmund 
may be seen a monument erected in his memory extolling 
his prowess, his deeds, and his strength. 

As to the great and magical horse Bayard, the chronicle 
says that, captured finally by Charlemagne's soldiers and 

136 



TERMONDE (DENDERMONDE) 

brought before him, the Emperor deliberated what he 
should do with it, since it refused to be ridden. Finally 
he ordered that the largest mill stone in the region should 
be made fast to its neck by heavy chains, and that it 
should then be cast into the River Meuse. 

Bayard contemptuously shook off the heavy stone and 
with steam pouring from his nostrils, gave three neighs of 
derision and triumph and, climbing the opposite bank, 
vanished into the gloom of the forest where none dared 
follow. Of the immortality of this great horse history is 
emphatic and gravely states that, for all that is known 
to the contrary, he may still be at large in the Ardennes, 
but that " no man has since beheld him." 

And now yearly on the Grand' Place at Termonde 
there is a great festival and procession in his honor, de- 
picting the chief incidents of his life and mighty deeds, 
while, at Dinaut, on the River Meuse, the scene of some of 
his mightiest deeds, may still be seen the great Rock Ba- 
yard, standing more than forty yards high and separated 
from the face of the mountain by a roadway cut by Louis 
the Sixteenth, who cared little for legends. From the 
summit of this great needle of rock sprang the horse Ba- 
yard, flying before the forces of Charlemagne with the 
four brothers on his back, and, so tradition says, " leaped 
across the river, disappearing in the woods on the further 
bank." 

137 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

We were fortunate in being at Termonde on the oc- 
casion of this picturesque festival. Songs of Bayard and 
his prowess were sung in the streets by various musical 
societies, each of which carried huge banners bearing their 
titles and honors, and some curious frameworks on poles 
which were literally covered with medals and wreaths 
bestowed upon the societies by the town at various times. 
These were borne proudly through the streets, and each 
society had its crowd of partisans and loud admirers. 
Had it not been so picturesque and strange, it would have 
seemed childish and pathetic, but the people were so evi- 
dently in earnest and seemed to enjoy it so hugely that 
the chance stranger could not but enter into the spirit of 
it all with them. This we did and wisely. There was 
much drinking of a thin sour beer called " faro," which is 
very popular with the peasants, and the various societies 
sang themselves hoarse, to the delight of all, including 
themselves. The horse Bayard, as seen in the market 
place, was a great wicker affair hung in wondrous chain 
armor, and the four sons of Ajnnon, also of wickerwork, 
and likewise clad in armor, each bearing a huge sword, sat 
upon his back and were trundled through the streets. 
There were also booths in which the inevitable and odor- 
iferous fritters were fried, and some merry-go-rounds with 
thunderous, wheezy, groaning steam organs splitting 
one's ears, and platforms upon which the peasants danced 

138 



The Museum: Termonde 



\.n^^^v.■^^X ■.>UU',>.uU, ^JA'V 



TERMONDE (DENDERMONDE) 

and danced until one would have thought them fit to drop 
with fatigue. 

It did not take long to examine the attractions most 
thoroughly, but there were two very extraordinary ex- 
hibits of enormously fat women (who are great favorites 
with the peasantry, and no celebration seems to be com- 
plete without them) . Their booths were placed opposite 
to each other, nearly face to face, with only about forty 
feet between them. In this space crowded the peasants 
listening open mouthed in wonder at the vocabulary of 
the rival " barkers." 

As usual, a shower came on during the afternoon, and 
the decorations were soaked with the downpour. The 
wickerwork horse Bayard was left to itself out in the 
square, and the wind whisked the water soaked draperies 
over its head, disclosing piteously all of its poor frame- 
work. The leaden skies showing no promise of clearing, 
we called the driver of the ancient " fiacre," and after set- 
tling our score at the " Grande Hotel Cafe Royal de la 
Tete d'Or," we departed for the station of the " chemin 
de fer," which bumped us well but safely along the road 
to Antwerp. 

We came again later on to this little town on the river, 
thinking that we might not have done it entire justice, 
because of the discomfort of the rainy day. And while 
we did not, it is true, find anything of great value to re* 

139 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

cord, nor anything in the way of bells to gloat over, still 
our rather dismal impression of the little town in the 
drizzling rain as we last saw it, was quite removed and 
replaced by a picture more to our liking. 

We were constantly finding new and unusual charms 
in the quaint old towns, each seeming for some reason 
quainter than the preceding one. Here on this occasion 
it looked so tranquil, so somnolent, that we tarried all 
unwilling to lose its flavor of the unusual. There were 
old weather beaten walls of ancient brick, mossy in places, 
and here and there little flights of steep steps leading 
down into the water; broad pathways there were too, 
shaded by tall trees and behind them vistas of delightful 
old houses, each doubtless with its tales of joy, gayety, 
pain or terror of the long ago. 

The local policeman stood at a deserted street corner 
examining us curiously. He was the only sign of life vis- 
ible except ourselves, and soon he, satisfied that we were 
only crazy foreigners with nothing else to do but wander 
about, took himself off yawning, his hands clasped behind 
his back, and his short sword rattling audibly in the still- 
ness. 

The atmosphere of this silent street by the river, shaded 
almost to a twilight by the thick foliage, with the old 
houses all about us, seemed to invite reminiscence, or 
dreams of the stern and respectable old burghers and 

140 



TERMONDE (DENDERMONDE) 

burgesses in sombre clothing, wide brimmed hats, and 
stiffly starched linen ruffs about their necks as rendered 
by Rembrandt, Hals, Rubens and Jordaens. They must 
have been veritable domestic despots, magnates of the 
household, but certainly there must have been something 
fine about them too, for they are most impressive in their 
portraits. 

" They shook the foot of Spain from their necks," and 
when they were not fighting men they fought the waters. 
Truly the history of their struggles is a wondrous one! 
None of these was in sight, however, as we strolled the 
streets, but we did disturb the chat or gossip of two de- 
lightful, apple cheeked old ladies in white caps, who be- 
came dumb with astonishment at the sight of two foreign- 
ers who walked about gazing up at the roofs and windows 
of the houses, and at the mynheer in knickerbockers who 
was always looking about him and writing in a little 
book. 

One cannot blame them for being so dumbfounded 
at such actions, such incomprehensible disturbing actions 
in a somnolent town of long ago. In the vestibule of the 
dark dim old church I copied the following inscription 
from a wall. It sounds something like English gone quite 
mad — and the last line, it seems to me, runs rather trip- 
pingly — and contains something of an idea too, what- 
ever it means : 

141 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

" Al wat cr is. Mijn hoop is Christus en zyn bloed. 

" Door deze leer ik en hoop door die het eenwig goed. 

" 0ns leven is maar cencn dag, vol ziekten en vol naar geklag. 

"Vol rampen dampen (!) en vendriet. Een schim 

" Eien droom en andcrs niet." 



A small steamer had advertised to leave for Antwerp 
about 3 o'clock. It lay puffing and wheezing at the side 
of the stream, and we went on board and settled ourselves 
comfortably, tired out with our wanderings. Here a 
bevy of children discovered us and ranged themselves 
along the dyke to watch our movements, exploding with 
laughter whenever we addressed one another. Finally 
an oily hand appeared at the hatchway of the engine 
room, followed by the touseled yellow head of a heavily 
bearded man. He looked at us searchingly, then at the 
line of tormenting children. Then he seized a long pole 
and advanced threateningly upon the phalanx. They 
fled incontinently out of reach, calling out various exple- 
tives in Flemish — of which I distinguished only one, 
" Koek bakker " ! This would seem to be the crowning 
insult to cast at a respectable engineer, for he shook his 
fist at them. 

To our amazement he then touched his greasy cap to 
us, and in the broadest possible Scotch dialect bade us 
welcome. There is a saying that one has only to knock 
on the companion ladder of any engine room in any port 

142 



TERMONDE (DENDERMONDE) 

the world over, and call out " Sandy " to bring up in 
response one or two canny Scots from the engine room 
below. This little steamer evidently took the place of 
the carrier's cart used elsewhere; for passengers and 
parcels, as well as crates of vegetables were her cargo. 
At length we started puffing along the river, and stopping 
from time to time at small landings leading to villages 
whose roofs appeared above the banks and dykes. 

Delightful bits of the more intimate side of the people's 
life revealed themselves to us on these unusual trips. 
We passed a fine looking old peasant woman in a beauti- 
ful lace cap, rowing a boat with short powerful strokes in 
company with a young girl, both keeping perfect time. 
The boat was laden with green topped vegetables and 
brightly burnished brass milk cans, forming a picture that 
was most quaint to look upon. And later we passed a 
large Rhine barge, from the cabin of which came the most 
appetizing odor of broiled bacon. Our whistle brought 
out the whole family, and likewise a little nervous black 
and white dog who went nearly mad with the excitement 
attendant upon driving us away from the property he had 
to protect. 

Night was falling when we reached the quay side in 
Antwerp, and we disembarked to the tinkling melody of 
the wondrous chimes from the tower of the great Cathe- 
dral. 

143 



KoMn 



iLoMn 



ET was in the great Gothic Church of St. Peter that 
Mathias Van den Gheyn delighted to execute those 
wonderful " morceaux fugues " now at once the de- 
light and the despair of the musical world, upon the fine 
chime of bells in the tower. This venerable tower was 
entirely destroyed in the terrible bombardment of the 
town in 1914. It is probable that no town in Belgium 
was more frequented by learned men of all professions, 
since its university enjoyed such a high reputation the 
world over, and certainly its library, likewise entirely 
destroyed, with its precious tomes and manuscripts, was 
considered second to none. 

The old Church of St. Peter, opposite the matchless 
Hotel de Ville, was a cruciform structure of noble propor- 
tions and flanked with remarkable chapels; it was begun, 
according to the archives in Brussels, in 1423, to replace 
an earlier building of the tenth century, and was " fin- 
ished " in the sixteenth century. There was, it seems, 
originally a wooden spire on the west side of the structure 
but " it was blown down in a storm in 1606." 

147 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

When I saw it in 1910, the church was in process of 
restoration, and the work was being very intelligently 
done by competent men. Before the fagade was a most 
curious row of bizarre small houses of stucco, nearly every 
one of which was a sort of saloon or cafe, and the street 
before them was quite obstructed by small round tables 
and chairs at which, in the afternoon from four to five, 
the shopkeepers and bourgeois of the town gathered for 
the afternoon " aperitif" whatever it might be, and to 
discuss politics. For be it known that this period before 
the outbreak of the war, was in Belgium a troublous one 
for the Flemings, because of the continued friction be- 
tween the clerical and the anti-clerical parties. These 
bizarre houses, I was told by one of the priests with whom 
I talked, were owned by the church, and were very profita- 
ble holdings, but tourists and others had made such sport 
of them, and even entered such grave protests to the 
Bishop, that the authorities finally concluded to tear them 
down. But they were certainly very picturesque, as my 
picture shows, their red tiled roofs and green blinds, 
making most agreeable notes of color against old St. 
Peter's gray wall. 

The church so wantonly destroyed in 1914 contained 
some most remarkable works of art in the nine chapels. 
Among these were the " Martyrdom of St. Erasmus," by 
Dierick Bouts, long thought to be a work of Memling. 

148 






t;- 



rX#ii 





The Cathedral: Louvain 



VA> 



TQXJtr 



...iJERS 



resto' 
done 
curious row oi 



dowT 

picture &. 
making n. • . 
Peter's gray V, 
The church 
some most rer 
Among these w ,, ■, 
Dierick Bouts, long 



IS in process of 

ry intelligently 

ade was a most^ 

CO, nearly every 

••-'^ "-^-^e street 

: tables 

a five, 

red for 

and to 

. before 

iublous one 

■ c continued friction be- 

.i.iCi-clerical parties. These 

one of the priests with whom 

hurch, and were very profita- 

d others had made such sport 

,.d such grave protests to the 

f ies finally concluded to tear them 

oertainly very picturesque, as my 

d tiled roofs and green blinds, 

,T<.t,^c of />/i1/\r otvotnct- old St. 

destroyed in 1914 contained 

art in the nine chapels. 

..... , . vlom of St. Erasmus," by 

tliought to be a work of Memling. 

148 



«i»'i«oA •. \ttt\vi.s\UVO ai\T 




.;f 






G.C 



jLa.i'^j. 




LOUVAIN 

Another painting, " The Last Supper," was also consid- 
ered one of Memling's works, until its authenticity was 
established by the finding of the receipt by Bouts for pay- 
ment, discovered in the archives of the Library in Louvain 
in 1870. Formerly the church owned a great treasure in 
Quentin Matsys' " Holy Family," but this was sold to 
the Brussels Museum for something less than £ 10,000, 
and upon the outbreak of the war was in that collection. 
It is said that most of these great paintings owned in Bel- 
gium were placed in zinc and leaden cases and sent over 
to England for safety. It is to be hoped that this is true. 

The custode showed, with most impressive manner, a 
quaint image of the Savior which, he related, was con- 
nected with a miraculous legend to the effect that the 
statue had captured and held a thief who had broken into 
the church upon one occasion I The townspeople vener- 
ate this image, and on each occasion when I visited the 
church, I noted the number of old women on their knees 
before it, and the many lighted waxen candles which they 
offered in its honor. A wave of indignation passed over 
the world of art when the newspapers reported the de- 
struction of the beautiful Hotel de Ville, just opposite 
old St. Peter's. This report was almost immediately fol- 
lowed by a denial from Berlin that it had suffered any 
harm whatever, and it would seem that this is true. 

The Library, however, with its hundreds of thousands 
149 



.VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

of priceless records, and masterpieces of printing is, it 
is admitted, entirely destroyed! This great building, 
black and crumbling with age, was situated in a small 
street behind the Hotel de Ville. The town itself 
was bright and clean looking, and there was a handsome 
boulevard leading from the new Gothic railway station 
situated in a beflowered parkway, which was lined with 
prosperous looking shops. This whole district was " put 
to the torch" and wantonly destroyed when the town 
was captured in 1914. Late photographs show the new 
station levelled to the ground, and the parkway turned 
into a cemetery with mounds and crosses showing where 
the soldiers who lost their lives in the bombardment, and 
subsequent sacking, are buried. 

Remembering the complete destruction of Ypres, one 
can only believe that the preservation of the Hotel de 
yille was entirely miraculous and unintentional. 

P. J. Verhaegan, a Flemish painter of considerable 
reputation and ability, had decorated one of the two 
" absidiole " chapels which contained a very richly carved 
tomb over a certain lady of the thirteenth century whose 
fame is known all over Flanders. The legend was most 
dramatically told to me by one of the young priests of 
St. Peter's, and this is the story of the beautiful Margaret, 
called " the Courageous," (La Fiere) . 

By the Grace of God, there lived in Louvain, in the 
150 



The Town Hall: Louvai 



or pr' 



OF FL 



I of Yprfs, one 
f the H 
5 and uu 'itentior 






; Margaret 



MvvjijwoJL -.WnW 4\tjsoT '^sW. 



LOUVAIN 

year 1235, one Armand and his wife, both devout Catho- 
lics and the keepers of a travelers' " ordinary " on the 
road to the coast, called Tirlemont. These two at length 
decided to retire from their occupation as " Hoteliers," 
and devote and consecrate the remainder of their lives 
to God, and the blessed saints. 

Now they had a niece who was a most beautiful girl 
and whose name was Margaret, and she had such disdain 
for the young gallants of Louvain that they bestowed 
upon her the name of " La Fiere." Although but eight- 
een years of age she determined to follow the example 
of her uncle and aunt, and later become a " Beguine," 
thus devoting her life to charity and the care of the 
sick and unfortunate, for this is the work of the order of 
" Beguines." 

They realized a large sum of money from the sale of the 
hotel, and this became known throughout the country- 
side. It was said that the money was hidden in the house 
in which they lived, and at length eight young men of 
evil lives, pondering upon this, resolved that they would 
rob this noble couple. Upon a stormy night they de- 
manded admittance, saying that they were belated travel- 
ers. 

The young girl Margaret was absent from the room for 
a moment, when these ruffians seized the old couple and 
murdered them. On her return to the upper room from 

151 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

the cellar, Margaret surprised them ransacking the strong 
box beside the fireplace. So they overpowered her also, 
but at once there ensued an argument as to what should 
be done with her, when the chief rogue, admiring her 
great beauty, proposed to her that she accept him as her 
lover and depart with him for France, where they could 
live happily. This she scornfully refused, whereupon 
" one of the ruffians strangled her for ten marcs of silver; 
and her soul, white and pure as the angels, ascended 
to the throne of Jesus, in whom she so well believed, and 
there became ' V unique espoux dont elle ambitionait 
r Amour: " 

It is said that Henry the First sitting in a window of 
his chateau on the river Dyle one night, saw floating on 
the dark water the corpse of this young martyr, where the 
ruffians had thus thrown her, and " the pale radiance 
from her brow illuminated the whole valley." Calling to 
his consort, Marguerite of Flanders, he pointed out to her 
the wondrous sight, and hastening forth they drew her 
dripping body from the dark slimy water and bore it ten- 
derly to the chateau. The news spread far and wide, and 
for days came throngs to view the " sweet martyr's " 
body, for which the priests had prepared a costly cata- 
falque, and for her a grand mass was celebrated in St. 
Peter's where she was laid at rest in a tomb, the like of 
which for costliness was never seen in Flanders. 

152 



LOUVAIN 

And this is the legend of Margaret, called " La Fiere," 
whose blameless life was known throughout the land. 

I wish that I had made a drawing of this tomb while I 
was in the church, but I neglected unfortunately to do so. 
It was of simple lines, but of great richness of detail. Of 
course both it and the beautiful wax paintings of M. 
Verhaegan are now entirely destroyed in the ruins of 
St. Peter's. 



153 



j^ottoi 



jDotitit 



^y^ LTHOUGH across the border in France, Douai 
Mm must still be called a Flemish town, because of 
^^ its history and affiliations. The town is quaint 
in the extreme and of great antiquity, growing up orig- 
inally around a Gallo-Roman fort. In the many wars 
carried on by the French against the English, the Flemish 
and the Germans, not to mention its sufferings from the 
invading Spaniards, it suffered many sieges and captures. 
Resisting the memorable attack of Louis the Eleventh, it 
has regularly celebrated the anniversary of this victory 
each year in a notable Fete or Kermesse, in which the 
effigies of the giant Gayant and his family, made of 
wickerwork and clad in medieval costumes, are paraded 
through the town by order of the authorities, followed by 
a procession of costumed attendants through the tortuous 
streets, to the music of bands and the chimes from the bel- 
fry of the Hotel de Ville. 

This, the most notable edifice in the town, is a fine 
Gothic tower one hundred and fifty feet high, with a re- 
markable construction of tower and turrets, supported 

157 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

by corbels of the fifteenth century, containing a fine chime 
of bells made by the Van den Gheyns. The bells are 
visible from below, hanging sometimes well outside the 
turret of the bell chamber, and, ranging tier upon tier, 
from those seemingly the size of a gallon measure, to those 
immense ones weighing from fifteen hundred to two thou- 
sand pounds. This great tower witnessed the attack and 
occupation of the Spaniards, the foundation by the Ro- 
man Catholics of the great University in 1652 to counter- 
act the Protestantism of the Netherlands, which had but 
a brief career, and the capture of the town by Louis the 
Fourteenth. Here was published in 1610 an English 
translation of the Old Testament for Roman Catholics, 
as well as the English Roman Catholic version of the 
scriptures, and the New Testament translated at Rheims 
in 1582, and known as the " Douai Bible." This was 
also the birthplace of Jean Bellgambe, the painter ( 1540) 
surnamed "Maitre des Couleurs," whose nine great oaken 
panels form the wonderful altarpiece in the church of 
Notre Dame. 

Douai was, before the great war, a peaceful industrial 
center of some importance, of some thirty thousand in- 
habitants. It has been said that the Fleming worked 
habitually fifty-two weeks in the year. An exception, 
however, must be made for fete days, when no self-re- 
specting Fleming will work. On these days the holiday 

158 




The Toxon Hall: Douai 



VANISH jcvij- i ^jy\ 


)ERS 


by corbels of tV ^ " '"- 


i.:g a line chime 


of bells ma<^ 


The bells are 


visible fj 


well outside the 




ngmg tier upon tier, 




to those 




o thou- 




■ck and 




IT- 
'Ut 




the 


tbiis 


lied ish 



Nor"' 
Ik 
cent I 
habir 
habir 
howevcj, 
specting 1 



Testament translated at Rheims 

the " Douai Bible." This was 

- Bellgambe, the painter (1540) 

eurs," whose nine great oaken 

altarpiccc in the church of 

peaceful industrial 
thirty thousand in- 
r'leming worked 
car. An exception, 
when no self-re- 
days the holiday 



jnivotl -.JYftVl sv'isoT "iAT 



DOUAI 

makers are exceedingly boisterous, and the streets are 
filled with the peasants clad in all their holiday finery. 
But it is on the day of the Kermesse that your Fleming 
can be seen to the best advantage. There are merry-go- 
rounds, shooting galleries, swings, maybe a traveling 
circus or two, and a theatrical troupe which shows in a 
much bespangled and mirrored tent, decorated with tinsel 
and flaming at night with naphtha torches. Bands of mu- 
sic parade the streets, each carrying a sort of banneret 
hung with medals and trophies awarded by the town au- 
thorities at the various " seances" 

But the greatest noise comes from the barrel organs of 
huge size and played by steam, or sometimes by a patient 
horse clad in gay apparel who trudges a sort of treadmill 
which furnishes the motive power. In even these small 
towns of Ancient Flanders such as Douai, the old allegori- 
cal representations, formerly the main feature of the 
event, are now quite rare, and therefore this event of the 
parade of the wicker effigies of the fabulous giant Gayant 
and his family was certainly worth the journey from 
Tournai. The day was made memorable also to the 
writer and his companion because of the following adven- 
ture. 

There had been, it seems, considerable feeling against 
England among the lower orders in this border town over 
the Anglo-Boer War, so that overhearing us speaking 

159 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

English, some half grown lads began shouting out at us 
"Yerdamt Engelsch" and other pleasantries, and in 
a moment a crowd gathered about us. 

With the best Flemish at his command the writer ad- 
dressed them, explaining that we were Americans, but 
what the outcome would have been, had it not been for 
the timely arrival of a gendarme, I know not; but under 
his protection we certainly beat a hasty retreat. The 
lower classes of Flemings in their cups are unpleasant 
people to deal with, and it were well not to arouse them. 
But for this incident, and the fact that the afternoon 
brought on a downpour of rain, which somewhat damp- 
ened the ardor of the people and the success of the fete, 
our little trip over the border to this historic town would 
be considered worth while. Our last view of Douai was 
from the train window as we recrossed the river Scarpe, 
with the massive tower of the Hotel de Ville showing 
silhouetted dim and gray against a streaming sky. 



160 



<0u(ii^n9tiitf 



<0tttatir(i^ 



^I^ROM the small stucco station, embowered in lux- 
Mr uriant trees, we crossed a wide grass grown square, 
*^ faring towards the turrets of the town, which ap- 
peared above the small red and black tiled roofs of some 
mean looking peasant houses, and an estaminet, of 
stucco evidently brand new, and bearing a gilt lion over 
its door. Here a wide and rather well paved street led 
towards the town, bordered upon either hand by well kept 
and clean but blank looking houses, with the very narrow- 
est sidewalks imaginable, all of which somehow reminded 
us of some of the smaller streets of Philadelphia. The 
windows of these houses flush with the street were closely 
hung with lace, and invariably in each one was either a 
vase or a pot of some sort filled with bright flowers. Oc- 
casionally there was a small poor looking shop window 
in which were dusty glass jars of candy, pipes, packages 
of tobacco, coils of rope and hardware, and in one, evi- 
dently that of an apothecary, a large carved and var- 
nished black head of a grinning negro, this being the 
sign for such merchandise as tobacco and drugs. 

163 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

Here and there doorways were embellished with shiny 
brass knockers of good form, and outside one shop was a 
tempting array of cool green earthenware bowls of such 
beautiful shape that I passed them by with great longing. 

Soon this street made a turning, where there was a good 
bronze statue to some dignitary or other, and I caught 
a glimpse of that wondrous tower of the famous Hotel 
de Ville, the mate to that at Louvain, and soon I was be- 
neath its Gothic walls, bearing row upon row of niches, 
empty now, but once containing effigies of the powerful 
lords and ladies of Flanders. These rows rise tier upon 
tier to that exquisitely slender lacelike tower crowned 
with a large gilded statue of the town's patron, pennant 
in hand, and shining in the sunlight. 

From the Inn of the " Golden Apple of Oudenaarde " 
just opposite, I appraised its beauties over a good meal of 
young broiled chicken and lettuce salad, and a bowl of 
" cafe au lait" that was all satisfying. 

Afterwards, the custode, an old soldier, showed us the 
" Salle des Pas Perdus," containing a fine chimney piece 
alone worth the journey from Antwerp, and the Council 
Chamber, still hung with some good ancient stamped 
leather, and several large badly faded and cracked Span- 
ish paintings of long forgotten dignitaries both male and 
female. 

One Paul Van Schelden, a wood carver of great ability 
164 



The Town Hall: Oudenaardc 



lad, anc 



dent s: 



ibility 



^'Si-vo)rii\"i\yvvO •. \\v>\V «'koT TiA'V 



OUDENAARDE 

and renown, wrought a wonderful doorway, which was 
fast falling apart when I saw it. This gave access to a 
large room, the former Cloth Hall, now used as a sort of 
theatre and quite disfigured at one end by a stage and 
scenic arch. The walls were stenciled meanly with a large 
letter A surmounted by a crown. The interior had noth- 
ing of interest to show. 

On the opposite side of the square was the large old 
church of St. Walburga, with a fine tower capped by a 
curious upturned bulbous cupola, upon which was a large 
gilt open-work clock face. As usual, there was a chime 
of bells visible, and a flock of rooks circling about the 
tower. The style of St. Walburga was Romanesque, with 
Gothic tendencies. Built in the twelfth century, it suf- 
fered severely at the hands of the Iconoclasts, and even 
in its unfinished state was very impressive, none the less, 
either, because of the rows of small stucco red roofed 
houses which clung to its walls, leaving only a narrow en- 
trance to its portal. Inside I found an extremely rich 
polychromed Renaissance " reredos," and there was also 
the somewhat remarkable tomb of " Claude Talon," kept 
in good order and repair. 

Oudenaarde was famed for the part it played in the 
history of Flanders, and was also the birthplace of Mar- 
garet of Parma. It was long the residence of Mary of 
Burgundy, and gave shelter to Charles the Fifth, who 

165 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

sought the protection of its fortifications during the siege 
of Tournai in 1521. 

Here, too, Marlborough vanquished the French in 1708. 
I might go on for a dozen more pages citing the names 
of remarkable personages who gave fame to the town, 
which now is simply wiped from the landscape. But by 
some miracle, it is stated, the Town Hall still stands 
practically uninjured. I have tried in vain to substan- 
tiate this, or at least to obtain some data concerning it, 
but up to this writing my letters to various officials remain 
unanswered. 

I like to think of Oudenaarde as I last saw it — the 
huge black door of the church yawning like a gaping 
chasm, the square partly filled with devout peasants in 
holiday attire for the church fete, whatever it was. Part 
of the procession had passed beyond the gloom of the vast 
aisles into the frank openness of daylight. Between the 
walls of the small houses at either hand a long line of 
figures was marching with many silken banners. There 
seemed to be an interminable line of young girls — first 
communicants, I fancied, — in all the purity of their white 
veils and gowns against the somber dull grays of the 
church. This mass of pure white was of dazzling, start- 
ling effect, something like a great bed of white roses. 

Then came a phalanx of nuns clad in brown — I know 
not what their order was — their wide white cowls or coifs 

166 







Old Square and Church: Oudcnaardc 



V.AiM.^n vVERS ur I L/uNi^ERS 

sought the protecnoa ot its fortifications during the siege 
of Tournai in 1521, 

Here, too, Marlborough vanquished the French in 1708. 
I might go on for a dozen more pages citing the names 
of remarkable perso ' 1 to the town, 

which now is simply .j_ . icape. But by 

some miracle, it is stated, the Town Hall still stands 
practically uninjured. I have tried in vain to substan- 
'ils, or at least to obtain some ' 
,» this wrif.in-? vj v Icrters to van 

thmk of Oudenaarde as I last saw it — the 
huge DlacK door of the church yawning like .i 

chasm, the square partly filled with devout pt- 
holiday attire for the church fete, whatever it was. Part 
of the procession had passed beyond the gloom of the vast 
aisles into the frank openness of daylight. Between the 
walls of the small houses at either hand a long line of 
figures was marching with many silken banners. There 
seemed to be an interminable line of young girls — first 
communicants, I fancied, — in all the purity of their white 
veils and gowns against the somber dull grays of the 
church. This mass of pure white was of dazzling, start- 
ling effect, something like a great bed of white rose 

Then came a phalanx of nuns clad in brown — I kuuw 
not what their order was — their wide white cowls or coifs 

166 










>.L 



J 



OUDENAARDE 

serving only to accentuate the pallor of their grave faces, 
veritable " incarnations of meek renunciation," as some 
poet has beautifully expressed it. 

Then followed a group of seminarians clad in the lace 
and scarlet of their order, swinging to and fro their brazen 
censers from which poured fragrant clouds of incense. 

All at once a curious murmur came from the multitude, 
followed by a great rustling, as the whole body of people 
sank to their knees, and then I saw beyond at a distance 
across the square, the archbishop's silken canopy, and 
beneath it a venerable figure with upraised arms, elevat- 
ing the Host. 

Surely a moment of great picturesqueness, even to the 
non-participant; the bent heads of the multitude ; the long 
lines of kneeling black figures; scarlet and gold and lace 
of the priests' robes against the black note of the nuns' 
somber draperies ; the white coifs and veils, through which 
the sweet rapture of young religious awe made even 
homely features seem beautiful: the gold and scarlet 
again of the choristers; and finally, that culminating note 
of splendor beneath the silken canopy of the cardinal 
archbishop (Cardinal Mercier) enthroned here like some 
ancient venerated monarch; all this against the neutral 
gray and black lines of the townspeople ; surely this was 
the psychological moment in which to leave Oudenaarde, 
that I might retain such a picture in my mind's eye. 

167 



J[mn 



Tfmn 



^fjt^HE old red brick, flat topped, tower of St. Nicho- 
flU las was the magnet which drew us to this dear 
^■^ sleepy old town, in the southwest corner of the 
Belgian littoral; and here, lodged in the historic hostel 
of the " Nobele Rose " we spent some golden days. The 
name of the town is variously pronounced by the people 
Foorn, Fern, and even Fearn. I doubt if many travelers 
in the Netherlands ever heard of it. Yet the town is 
one of great antiquity and renown, its origin lost in the 
dimness of the ages. 

According to the chronicles in the great Library at 
Bruges, as early as a. d. 800 it was the theatre of inva- 
sions and massacres by the Normans. That learned stu- 
dent of Flemish history, M. Leopold Plettinck, has made 
exhaustive researches among the archives in both Brus- 
sels and Bruges, and while he has been unable to trace 
its beginnings he has collected and assorted an immense 
amount of detailed matter referring to Baudoin (or Bald- 
win) Bras de Fer, who seems to have been very active in 
harassing the people who had the misfortune to come un- 
der his hand. 

171 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

The War of the " Deux Roses " was fought outside 
the walls here, likewise the Battle of the Spurs took place 
on the plains between Furnes and Ypres. Following the 
long undulations of the dunes from Dunkerque, over- 
grown here and there with a rank coarse grass sown by 
the authorities to protect them from the wind and the en- 
croachments of the ever menacing sea, dune succeeds 
dune, forming a landscape of most unique character. 
Passing the small hamlet of Zuitcote, marked by the 
sunken tower of its small church, which now serves as a 
sort of semaphore for the fishing boats off the coast, one 
reached the canal which crosses the plain picturesquely. 
This led one along the path to the quaint old town of 
Furnes, showing against the heavy dark green of the old 
trees, its dull red and pink roofs with the bulk of the 
tower forming a picture of great attractiveness. 

The town before the war had about six thousand popu- 
lation which seemed quite lost in the long lines of silent 
grass grown streets, and the immense Grand' Place, 
around which were ranged large dark stone Flemish 
houses of somewhat forbidding exteriors. All the activ- 
ity of the town, however, was here in this large square, 
for the lower floors had been turned into shops, and also 
here was the hotel, before which a temporary moving 
picture theatre had been put up. 

These are very popular in Flanders, and are called 
172 





The Fish Market: Yprcs 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLMsUEKS 

The War of the " Deux Roses " was fought outside 

■■-'■'' ' " ' •'-- ^ ■^''•' ' *' - Q . ,rc took place 

] lowing the 
from Dunkcrque, over- 
• grass sown by 
... wind and the en- 
sea, dune succeeds 
most unique character, 
rnarked by the 
'^"^ serves as a 
• coast, one 
-qucly. 
,U town of 
..v^ , _, v... ,. ^. .-^ii of the old 
roofs with the bulk of the 
c^eat attractiveness, 
(ad about six thousand popu- 
<st in the long lines of silent 
he immense Grand' Place, 
i large dark stone Flemish 
ing exteriors. All the activ- 
as here in this large square, 
«. turned into shops, and also 
which a temporary moving 

^-^"ders, and are called 



^Tl•n^'I -.Vi-A-vsiiri i\u'\ ^ATl 



2^ 



J% 



^ 



■^ 



^>r^- 



^ / 




1- :K^;a-.«: 



r 






FURNES 

" Cinema-Americain." The portable theatres are in- 
variably wooden and are carried " knocked down " in 
large wagons drawn by hollowbacked, thick-legged Flem- 
ish horses. As a rule they have steam organs to furnish 
the " music " and the blare of these can be heard for miles 
across the level plains. 

The pictures shown are usually of the lurid sort to suit 
the peasants, and the profits must be considerable, as the 
charge is ten and twenty-five cents for admission. On 
this square is the Hotel de Ville, the Palace of Justice, 
and Conciergerie. This latter is a sort of square " don- 
jon " of great antiquity, crenelated, with towers at each 
corner and the whole construction forming an admirable 
specimen of Hispano-Flemish architecture. 

The angle of the " Place " opposite the pavilion of the 
officers is occupied by the Hotel de Ville and the " Palais 
de Justice," very different in style, for on one side is a 
massive fagade of severe aspect and no particular period, 
while on the other is a most graceful Flemish Renaissance 
construction, reminding one of a Rubens opposed, in all 
its opulence, to a cold classic portrait by Gainsborough. 

The Hotel de Ville, of 1612, exhibits in its " Pignons," 
its columns and Renaissance motifs, a large high tower 
of octagonal form surmounted by a small cupola. Its 
frontage pushes forward a loggia of quite elegant form, 
with balustrades in the Renaissance style. 

173 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

Above this grave looking gray building rises the tower 
of the " Beffroi," part Gothic in style. 

All the houses on the " Place " have red tiled roofs, 
and gables in the Renaissance style very varied in form, 
and each one with a characteristic window above, framed 
richly en coquille, and decorated with arabesques. 

Behind these houses is what remains of the ancient 
Church of St. Walburga, half buried in the thick verdure 
of the garden. After considerable difficulty we gained 
admittance to the ruin, because it is not considered safe 
to walk beneath its walls. Even in its ruin it was most 
imposing and majestic. We would have tarried here, but 
the custode was very nervous and hurried us through the 
thickets of bushes growing up between the stones of the 
pavement, and fairly pushed us out again into the small 
parkway, accepting the very generous fee which I gave 
him with what I should call surliness. But we ignored 
this completely, after the manner of old travelers, which 
we had been advised to adopt. 

At one side were stored some rather dilapidated and 
dirty wax figures which reclined in various postures, 
somewhat too lifelike in the gloom of the chamber, and 
entirely ludicrous, so much so that it was with much dif- 
ficulty that we controlled our smiles. The roving eye of 
the surly custode, however, warned us against levity of 
any sort. These wax figures, he explained, gruffly 

174 



FURNES 

enough, were those of the most sacred religious person- 
ages, and the attendant saints and martyrs, used in the 
great procession and ceremony of the " Sodalite," which 
is a sort of Passion Play, shown during the last Sunday 
in July of each year in the streets of the town.* The 
story relates an adventure of a Count of Flanders, who 
brought to Fumes, during the first years of the Holy Cru- 
sades, a fragment of the True Cross. Assailed by a tem- 
pest in the Channel off the coast, he vowed the precious 
object to the first church he came to, if his prayers for 
succor were answered. " Immediately the storm abated, 
and the Count, bearing the fragment of the Cross aloft, 
was miraculously transported over the waves to dry 
land." 

This land proved to be the sand dunes of Flanders, 
and the church tower was that of St. Walburga. After 
a conference with his followers, who also were saved, he 
founded the solemn annual procession in honor of the 
True Cross, in which was also introduced the represen- 
tation of the " Mysteries of the Passion." * 

This procession was suppressed during the religious 
troubles of the Reform, but afterwards was revived by 
the church authorities, and now all of the episodes of the 
life of Christ pass yearly through the great Grand' Place 
— the stable in Bethlehem; the flight into Egypt; down 

* This passion play is described in detail in " Some Old Flemish Towns." 
(Same author. Moffat, Yard & Co., New York, 1911.) 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

to the grand drama of the Calvary and the Resurrection, 
all are shown and witnessed with great reverence by the 
crowds of devout peasants from the surrounding country. 
And these pathetic waxen figures were those of Prophets, 
Apostles, Jews, Angels, Cavaliers and Roman Soldiers, 
lying all about the dim dusty chamber in disorder. Af- 
terwards, from the window of the quaint Hotel of the 
" Nobele Rose," we saw this procession passing through 
the crowded streets of Furnes, and almost held our 
breaths with awe at the long line of black cloaked, 
hooded penitents, bare-footed, the faces covered so that 
one could hardly tell whether they were men or women, 
save for the occasional delicate small white foot thrust 
forward beneath the black shapeless gown. 

And finally One Figure, likewise black gowned and 
with concealed face, staggering along painfully — feebly 
— and bearing a heavy wooden cross, the end of which 
dragged along on the stones of the street.* 

Outside of this, the Grand' Place, and the old red brick 
tower of St. Nicholas, so scorched by the sun and beaten 
by the elements, and the rows of quaint gabled houses be- 
neath, Furnes has little to offer to the seeker after an- 
tiquity. The bells in the tower are of sweet tone, but the 
chimes which hung there were silent, and no amount of 
persuasion could induce the custode to admit me to the 

* See " Some Old Flemish Towns." 

176 



FURNES 

bell chamber. Madame at the " Nobele Rose " had as- 
sured me that I could go up there into the tower whenever 
I wished, but somehow that pleasure was deferred, until 
finally we were forced to give it up. Of course Madame 
did rob me ; when the bill was presented, it proved to be 
fifty per cent, more than the price agreed upon, but she 
argued that we had " used " the window in our apartment 
overlooking the procession, so we must pay for that privi- 
lege. The point was so novel that I was staggered for a 
suitable reply to it, — the crucial moment passed, — I was 
lost. I paid! 



177 



W^ Srte of Wm% 



ST may not be out of place to add here some account 
of the artists * who dwelt in and made Malines 
famous in the early days. Primitively the painters 
formed part of the Society of Furniture Makers, while 
sculptors affiliated with the Masons' Gild. These at 
length formed between them a sort of federation as they 
grew in number and power. Finally, in 1543, they 
formed the Gild of Saint Luke. In 1560 they numbered 
fifty-one free masters, who gave instruction to a great 
number of apprentices. They admitted the gold beaters 
to membership in 1618, and the following year the or- 
ganization had increased to ninety-six members. 

Working in alabaster was, during this epoch, a spe- 
cialty with the sculptors of Malines, which soon resulted in 
a monopoly with them, for they made a law that no master 
workman could receive or employ more than one appren- 
tice every four years. The workers in gold covered the 

* The list is drawn in part from thie " Histoire de la Peinture et de la 
Sculpture a Malines," par Emmanuel Neefs — Gand, Van der Heeghen, 
1876, translated from the manuscripts composed in Latin by the painter 
Egide Joseph Smeyers, Malines, 1774. 

181 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

statues with heavy ornaments of gold, it being forbidden 
to market statuary not so gilded. The Gild of Saint 
Luke chafed under this ruling of the Gild Master, and 
surreptitiously made and delivered some statuary and 
paintings without any gilding whatever. 

Charges being brought against the offenders, they were 
fined twenty-five florins, and a law was passed author- 
ized by the magistrate, permitting domiciliary visits upon 
certain days known only to the officers, to the houses of 
suspected men engaged in art work. Of course reputable 
workmen were free from suspicion, it being only those 
mediocre craftsmen and irregular apprentices who would 
engage in such traffic. 

It was not until 1772 that any sculptor was permitted 
to paint or gild for profit, nor was any painter allowed to 
model. The profession of an artist was regarded as less 
than an industry, being a sort of hand to mouth existence 
in which the unfortunate was glad to accept whatever 
work the artisan could give him. In 1783 the Gild had 
dwindled to twelve members, who finally were absorbed 
by the Academy of Design, established by Maria Theresa 
in 1773. Thus perished the Gild of Painters and Sculp- 
tors of Malines. 

The following is a list of the principal artists and en- 
gravers, chronologically arranged, who made Malines 
famous : 

182 



THE ARTISTS OF MALINES 

Jean Van Battele, one of the promoters of the Gild of 
Saint Luke of Malines, was a successful workman in 1403. 
He was said to be more of a painter-glazer than a painter 
of pictures, but there is sufficient evidence that he prac- 
tised both genres. 

Gauthier Van Battele, son of the above, was admitted 
to the Gild in 1426, and figured in the artistic annals of 
the town in 1474-75. 

Baudoin Van Battele, alias Vander Wyck, believed to 
be " petitfils " of Gauthier, is mentioned in the chronicles 
of 1495. He painted many mural pictures for the " Bey- 
aerd " ; the fresco of the Judgment Day in the great hall 
of the " Vierschaer " is his greatest work. He died about 
1508. 

He had one son, Jean, who executed a triptych in the 
Hotel de Ville of Malines in 1535, and illuminated a 
manuscript register on vellum relating to the " Toison 
d'Or." This book was presented to Charles-Quint, and 
so pleased him that he ordered a duplicate which cost the 
artist three years of hard work to complete. He died in 
July, 1557, highly honored. 

Daniel Van Yleghem was the chief workman upon the 
Holy tabernacle of the chief altar of St. Rombauld. An 
engraver of great merit; he died in 1451 (?) . 

Jean Van Orshagen occupied the position of Royal 
Mint Engraver of Malines, 1464-65. The following 

183 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

year he was discovered passing false money at Louvain. 
Imprisoned, he died of the pestilence in 1471. 

Guillaume Trabukier excelled in the art of a designer- 
engraver (ciseleur) in gold. For the town he made many 
beautiful pieces of work, notably the silver statue of St. 
Rombauld which decorated the high altar of the Cathe- 
dral. He died in 1482. 

Zacherie Van Steynemolen, born about 1434, was an 
excellent engraver of dies. During more than forty years 
(1465-1507) he made the seals of the town corporations. 
Notably he engraved for the Emperor Frederic IV the 
two great seals which are now in the museum. He died 
in 1507. 

Michael or Michel Coxie, le vieux, was a greatly es- 
teemed painter who worked under the direction of Raph- 
ael. His real name was Van Coxcien, or Coxcyen, but 
he changed its form to Coxie. 

His son, Michel Coxie le Jeune, surnamed the Flemish 
Raphael, was born in 1499, and first studied under his 
father. He was shortly placed with Bernard Van Orley, 
who sent him to Rome, where he might study the work of 
Raphael Sanzio. His work was of very unequal merit, 
although he painted hundreds of compositions in triptych 
form for the churches. Towards the end of his life he 
was commissioned to paint a decoration for the Hotel de 
Ville of Antwerp. He fell from the scaffolding during 

184 



THE ARTISTS OF MALINES 

his work, receiving such injuries that he was incapaci- 
tated. Removed to his home in Malines, he died after 
some years of suffering, aged 93 years ! 

His second son, Raphael Coxie, born In 1540, was a 
'' painter of great merit, whose paintings were ordered for 
the Royal Spanish Cabinet. He lived at Antwerp, 
Ghent, and Brussels respectively, and died, full of hon- 
ors, in 1616. 

Michael, or Michel, Coxie, the third of the name, was 
received in the Gild of Painters the 28th day of Septem- 
ber, 1598. He is the author of the triptych over the altar 
of the " Jardiniers " of Notre-Dame au dela de la Dyle. 
He died in 1618. 

Michel Coxie, the Fourth, son of the above, born Sep- 
tember, 1604, was elected to the Gild in 1623. He be- 
came Court Painter to the King. 

Jean Coxie, son of Michel (above) excelled as a painter 
of landscape. He it was who decorated the two great sa- 
lons of the "Pare" Abbey. The subjects were drawn 
from the life of Saint Norbert. 

His son, Jean-Michel, though a member of the Gild of 
Malines, passed almost his whole life in Amsterdam, Dus- 
seldorf, and Berlin. In the latter town he enjoyed the 
favor and patronage of Frederick I. He died in Milan 
in 1720. 

Jean de Gruyter, gold worker and engraver, came in 
185 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

1504 to Malines, where he enjoyed a certain renown. 
After his death in 1518, his sons Jean and Pierre con- 
tinued the work which he began. Jean made seals of 
great beauty of detail, but Pierre was condemned to ban- 
ishment in 1536 and conjfiscation of all his goods and chat- 
tels, for counterfeiting the state coinage. 

Jean Hoogenbergh, born about 1500, was a successful 
painter of miniatures ; he lived about fifty years. 

Jean Van Ophem was appointed Civic Engraver of 
Seals and Gold Worker. He died in 1553. 

Frangois Verbeek became master workman in 1531, and 
finally doyen of the craft. He abandoned oil paint- 
ing for distemper, in which medium he excelled, produc- 
ing masterpieces depicting the most fantastic subjects. 
He died in July, 1570. 

Hans Verbeek, or Hans de Malines, believed to be the 
son of Frangois. He was Court Painter to Albert and Isa- 
bella. He died sometime after 1619. 

Gregoire Berincx, born in 1526, visited Italy and there 
made paintings in distemper of the ruins and ancient con- 
structions. Returning to his native town in 1555 he was 
at once made a Gild Member of the Corporation of Paint- 
ers. He died in 1573. 

His youngest son, Gregoire, became doyen, and of 
him the following story is told: The great Van Dyck 
visited him unexpectedly one day, and demanded that he 

186 



THE ARTISTS OF MALINES 

make a sketch of him (Van Dyck) at once, in his presence. 
Berincx accordingly painted in monotone the sketch in 
full length, adding the details in carnation, and so 
charmed was Van Dyck, that he assured him that he would 
adopt the system in his own work, " if he would permit." 
He died full of honors the 14th of October, 1669. 

Jacques de Poindre, born in 1527, acquired a brilliant 
reputation as a portrait painter. He afterwards estab- 
lished himself under royal patronage in Denmark where 
he died in 1570. 

Corneille Ingelrams, a painter in distemper, was born 
in 1527. He practised his art successfully in Malines 
and died in 1580. 

His son, Andre, was admitted to the Painters' Gild in 
May, 1571, and died in 1595. 

Marc Willems, born about 1527, was a pupil of Michel 
Coxie (le vieux) , was considered a great painter in his 
time. He made many designs for the decorators, and ad- 
mirable cartoons for tapestry makers. He died in 1561. 

Jean Carpreau was commissioned in 1554 to take charge 
of the restorations of the " chasse " of the patron saint of 
the town. Such was his success that he was appointed 
Official Seal Cutter and Engraver, a position of great im- 
portance in those days. At the Hotel de Ville was pre- 
served and shown a remarkable die in silver from his 
hand, for the Seal of the Municipality of Malines. 

187 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

Jean or Hans Bol, born December, 1534, was the pupil 
of his uncles Jacques and Jean the Elder, but after two 
years of apprenticeship he went to Germany for a time. 
Returning to Malines, he devoted himself to the paint- 
ing of landscapes with great success. Likewise he some- 
times engraved plates on copper. His productions are 
many. He died at Amsterdam in 1593. 

Lambert de Vos, admitted to the Gild of Saint Luke 
in 1563, was engaged in the service of Charles Kimy, Im- 
perial Ambassador to Constantinople. He painted ori- 
ental subjects in water colors, which were distinguished 
for richness of color, and accuracy of drawing. Many of 
these are in the Library of Breme. 

Jean Snellinck, born about 1554, was an historical 
and battle painter. It was he who prepared the designs 
for the tapestries of Oudenaarde. During his residence 
in that town he painted the triptych for the church 
of Notre Dame de Pamele. He died at Antwerp in 
1638. 

Louis Toeput was born about 1550. He was a land- 
scape painter of renown, but also drew many architectural 
subjects. In his later period, he devoted himself to Flem- 
ish literature with marked success as an authority. 

Luc Van Valckenborgh, called "partisan of the Re- 
form," was born in 1566, and in his student days went to 
Germany, where he practised his art as a portrait painter. 



THE ARTISTS OF MALINES 

His reputation was made by his portrait of the Archduke 
Matthias. 

He died in 1625, leaving a son Martin, also his pupil, 
who established himself at Antwerp and later at Frank- 
fort. Martin was an historical and landscape painter, 
although he painted some good portraits in the manner of 
his father. He is thought to have died about 1636. 

Philip Vinckboons, the elder, was born about 1550, 
became an associate of the Gild of Painters in 1580, and 
died 1631. His son Maur, the younger, born 1585, stud- 
ied painting under his father, finishing under his uncle 
Pierre Stevens. He died in 1647. 

Pierre Stevens, born about 1550, was an historical 
painter and engraver, as well as a portrait painter. This 
master latinized his name and signed his works thus — 
P. Stephani. He died in 1604 at Prague, where he had 
dwelt since 1590, under the patronage of the Emperor 
Rudolphe II. 

Rombaut Van Avont, incorporated in the Gild of Saint 
Luke in 1581, was a sculptor and painter as well as an 
illuminator of manuscripts on vellum. He died in 1619. 
His son Pierre, born in 1599, was an excellent painter of 
landscapes, which were distinguished by a most agreeable 
manner. Admitted as a " franc maitre " at Antwerp, he 
became one of the burgesses of that town in October, 163 1 . 

Luc Franchoys, the elder, born January, 1574, was ad- 
189 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

mitted to the Gild in 1599. A painter of remarkable tal- 
ent, he turned to historical subjects, which he produced 
with great success. In drawing, too, he was most skillful 
and correct. He died in 1693 and was buried with hon- 
ors in the church of St. Jean. 

His son Pierre, born in 1606, became pupil of Gerard 
Seghers of Antwerp, where he resided for some time. 
Afterward he lived in Paris, where his works were eagerly 
sought and appreciated. He never married, but always 
surrounded himself with young pupils to the time of his 
death in 1654. 

His younger brother, Luc, was born 1616. He re- 
mained with his father, working in his studio until he was 
admitted to the Gild, when he went to Paris, where he 
painted portraits of members of the Court, enjoying con- 
siderable renown and favor. He returned finally to Ma- 
lines, where he died in April, 1681. 

Frans Hals (The Great) , was born either here in Ma- 
lines, or at Antwerp, in 1584, Accounts differ. His par- 
ents were citizens of Malines, at any rate. He had the 
honor and glory of introducing into Holland the " pro- 
cede magistral " of Rubens and his school. His works are 
too well known to need description here. He established 
himself at Haarlem, where he died in great poverty in 
1666. Not even his burial place is now known. 

Jean le Saive of Namur, son of Le Saive the Elder, was 
190 



The Church of Our Ladij of Hanswyk 



Ills par- 
He had the 



•Ayv.ss*wiA\ \v 



THE ARTISTS OF MALINES 

born in the commencement of the seventeenth century. 
He painted animals, landscapes, and historical subjects. 
In the latter genre he is inferior to his father; his color 
is drier, and his drawing less correct. The date of his 
death is not recorded. 

George Biset, painter-decorator, entered the studio of 
Michel Coxie (Third) in 1615. He lived throughout his 
life at Malines, and died 1671. 

His son, Charles Emmanuel, born 1633, was an excel- 
lent portrait painter, enjoying much appreciation at the 
Court of France. He became Burgess of Antwerp in 
1663, and was elected a Director of the Academy. He 
died at Breda in 1685. 

Martin Verhoeven was elected to the Gild in 1623. 
He painted flowers and fruit pieces which enjoyed great 
celebrity. 

His brother Jean was known as a portraitist of great 
ability. In late life he produced some good sculptures. 

David Herregouts, born 1603, was elected to the Gild 
in 1624. Examples of his work are rare. He died at 
Ruremonde. His son Henri was a pupil of his father. 
David went to Italy, residing at Rome. After traveling 
in Germany he returned to Malines, and died at Antwerp 
at an advanced age. 

Jacques de (or Van) Homes, painter in distemper, was 
a pupil of Gregoire Berincx (Second) and executed much 

191 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

work in " cisele " under the direction of Fayd'herbe. He 
died in 1674. 

Jean Philippe Van Thieleu, born 1618, was an eminent 
flower and still-life painter, under the guidance of Daniel 
Zeghers. He was patronized by the King of Spain, and 
died in 1674. 

Ferdinand Elle, born 1631, according to some; in 1612, 
say other accounts, painter of portraits, went to Paris, 
where he remained until his death in 1660 ( ?) . 

Gilles (or Egide) Smeyers, historical painter, was born 
in 1635, and studied under his father Nicholas, later 
under Jean Verhoeven. In friendship for his companion 
and master Luc Franchoys the younger, he finished many 
of the latter's incompleted works after his death. 

His son Jacques, born 1657, was admitted to the Gild 
in 1688, and died in 1732. 

Egide Joseph, natural son of Jacques, born 1694, was 
an historical painter, as well as a poet. He lived at 
Dusseldorf for three years. Obliged to support his sick 
parents, he did a great deal of work. Smeyers had a pro- 
found knowledge of the Latin tongue, which he wrote 
with great fluency and ease, in both poetry and prose. He 
possessed, too, a working knowledge of French, German, 
and Italian. His historical works are many. At length, 
sick and helpless, he was admitted to the hospital of Notre 

192 



THE ARTISTS OF MALINES 

Dame, where he died in 1771. He painted the large por- 
trait of Cardinal Thomas Philippe d' Alsace, Archbishop 
of Malines. 

Daniel Janssens, born in 1636, was a painter-decorator 
of the first order. He adopted the manner of Jacques de 
Homes of whom he was the favorite pupil. After hav- 
ing resided in Antwerp for some years he returned to Ma- 
lines, where he died in 1682. He it was who designed 
and constructed the immense triumphal arch for the Jubi- 
lee of 1680. This arch is preserved in the Town Hall, 
and serves to decorate the fagade of the " Halles " on the 
occasion of the Grandes Fetes. 

Sebastian Van Aken, born 1648, was pupil of Luc 
Franchoys the Younger. Later he entered the studio of 
Charles Maratti in Rome. After painting in Spain and 
Portugal he returned to Malines, where he died in 1722. 

August Casimir Redel, born 1640. This painter 
of merit became insane from excesses and died in 1687. 
He was also the author of a life of St. Rombaut (Rom- 
bold) and wrote much in verse. He composed an ode on 
the occasion of the Jubilee of Malines in 1680. 

Jacques la Pla, pupil of Jean le Saive, a master painter 
of Malines in 1673, died in 1678. 

Jean Barthelemy Joffroy, born 1669, was historian, 
painter, and engraver. He died 1740. 

193 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

Jean Joseph Van Campenhout, designer and engraver. 
He was designer of the great book of the " Cavalcade of 
Malines " in 1775. 

Antoine Opdebeek, born 1709, author of many paint- 
ings of merit, was an untaught genius. Employed in the 
hospital of St. Hedwige in Malines, he taught himself the 
art, with success, but never reached the height which 
would have been his had he had instruction in his youth. 
He died 1759. 

Pierre Antoine Verhulst, born 1751, painter of marines 
and landscape, which he executed with great delicacy and 
charm, died 1809. 

Matthieu Joseph Charles Hunin, born 1770, was a 
master engraver, producing many plates after Rubens and 
other masters. To his talent is also due a great number 
of original engravings of the Tower of St. Rombold ; the 
interior and exterior of the Cathedral of Antwerp; the 
Hotels de Villes of Oudenaarde, Brussels and Louvain, 
etc., etc. He died in 1851. 

His son, Pierre Paul Aloys, born 1808, was a genre 
painter of great taste and renown. His works in which 
the painting of silk and satin appeared were in great de- 
mand. He was professor of the Malines Academy, and 
in 1848 Leopold I conferred upon him the decoration of 
the Order of Leopold. He died February 27th, 1855. 

194 



THE ARTISTS OF MALINES 

Many of his paintings have been reproduced in engrav- 
ings. 

Jean Ver Vloet, the doyen of the artists of Malines, 
died October 27th, 1869, after a long and successful 
artistic career. One of the founders of the society " Pour 
r Encouragement des Beaux Arts " of Malines, he was 
indefatigable in all art movements of the town. To him 
was due the success of the magnificent Cavalcades for 
which Malines has been famous. For fifty years he was 
the director of the Academy of Design and Painting of his 
native town. 

This ends the list of famous painters of Malines, and 
so far as I know it is the first and only one in English. 
Did space permit I might include the architects who made 
Flanders famous the world over as the cradle of art and 
architecture. 



iQi* 



9 SHord Boot t^ %t\mi 



9 QSOiord 9M t)^ %t\mii 

^fc^HE little country called Belgium, it should be re- 
■ U membered, dates only from 1830, when the exist- 
^■^ ing constitution was prepared and adopted for the 
nine southern provinces of the ancient Netherlands. The 
sudden and unexpected revolt against the Dutch in that 
year has been since styled " a misunderstanding " upon 
the part of the Belgians, and was brought about by the 
action of the King, William I, of the house of Orange- 
Nassau, who attempted ostentatiously to change at once 
the language and religion of his southern subjects. They 
were both Roman Catholic and conservative to the last 
degree, attached to traditional rights and forms and 
fiercely proud of the ancient separate constitutions of the 
southern provinces, which could be traced back to the 
charters of the Baldwins and Wenceslas. 

Undoubtedly the French Revolution of 1830, which 
closed the Monarchy of the Bourbons, hastened the crisis. 
For the Belgians had no liking for the rule of the House 
of Orange-Nassau against which they had discontentedly 
struggled for some years more or less openly. But mat- 

199 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

ters might have gone on thus indefinitely had not the 
French Revolution furnished ground for hope of sup- 
port from a people akin in religion and language, as 
well as race. The smouldering fire of discontent broke 
into fierce flame on August 25th, 1830, in the city of 
Brussels, during a performance of the opera " Muette de 
Portici," when the tenor was singing the inspired words 
of Massaniello : 

" Plutot mourir que rester miserable, 
Pour un esclave est-il quelque danger? 
Tombe le joug qui nous accable, 
Et sous nos coups perisse I'etranger. 
Amour sacre de la patrie, 
Rends nous I'audace et la fierte; 
A mon pays je dois la vie, 
II me devra sa liberte ! " 

The immense audience, roused to patriotic enthusiasm, 
took up the words of the song and, rushing from the 
theatre en masse, paraded the streets, attacking the resi- 
dences of the Dutch ministers, which they sacked and 
burned. 

The few troops in the town were powerless to stem the 
revolt, which grew until Brussels was entirely in the 
hands of the revolutionists, who then proceeded to ap- 
point a Council of Government, which prepared the now 
celebrated Document of Separation. 

William sent his son, the Prince of Orange, to treat 
200 



A WORD ABOUT THE BELGIANS 

with the Council, instead of sending a force of soldiers 
with which the revolt might have been terminated easily, 
it is claimed. The Prince entered Brussels accompanied 
only by a half dozen officers as escort. After three days' 
useless parley, he returned to King William with the 
" Document of Separation." 

The reply of the King to this message was made to the 
Dutch Chambers ten days later. Denouncing the revolt, 
he declared that he would never yield to " passion and 
violence." Orders were then issued to Dutch troops un- 
der Prince Frederick of Holland to proceed to Brussels 
and retake the city. The attack was made upon the four 
gates of the walled city on September 23rd. The Bel- 
gians prepared a trap, cunningly allowing the Dutch sol- 
diers to enter two of the gates and retreating towards the 
Royal Park facing the Palace. Here they rallied and at- 
tacked the troops of William from all sides at once. 
Joined by a strong body of men from Liege they fought 
for three days with such ferocity that Prince Frederick 
was beaten back again and again, until he was forced to 
retreat at midnight of the third day. 

In the battle six hundred Belgian citizens were slain, 
and to these men, regarded now as the martyrs of the Rev- 
olution, a great monument has been erected in the Place 
des Martyrs, near the trench in which they were buried. 

A provisional government was now formed which is- 
201 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

sued the following notice : " The Belgian provinces, de- 
tached by force from Holland, shall form an independ- 
ent state." Measures were taken to rid the country of 
the Dutch, who were expelled forcibly across the border. 

Envoys to Paris and London presented documents to 
secure sympathy for the new government, while the fight 
for independence was still going on fiercely. Waelhern 
and Berchem, besieged by the Belgian volunteers, soon 
fell, and the city of Antwerp was occupied by them before 
the end of October. 

Then the Conference of the Five Powers, sitting in 
London, interposed to force an armistice in order to de- 
terminate some understanding and arrangement between 
the Dutch and the Belgians, since it had become evident 
that the Netherlands kingdom of 1815 had practically 
come to an end. By the treaty of London in 1814, and 
that of Vienna in 1815, Belgium, after a short interreg- 
num of Austrian rule, was incorporated with Holland 
into the Kingdom of the Netherlands. 

In the space of a month then the Belgian patriots had 
accomplished their task, and on November 18th the Na- 
tional Assembly, convoked, declared as its first act the 
independence of the Belgians. 

It was now necessary to find a head upon which to 
place the crown. The first choice of the provisional gov- 
ernment was the Due de Nemours, the son of Louis 

202 



A WORD ABOUT THE BELGIANS 

Philippe, but objection was made to him on the ground 
that his selection would add too much, perhaps, to the 
power of France, so his candidature was withdrawn. 

Choice was fixed finally upon Prince Leopold of Saxe- 
Coburg, who had but recently declined the throne of 
Greece by advice of the European diplomats. A resident 
of England, this Prince, who had espoused Princess Char- 
lotte, the daughter of George IV, was well known as a 
most clear headed diplomat, a reputation he enjoyed dur- 
ing his whole career. 

In his acceptance he said : " Human destiny does not 
offer a nobler or more useful task than that of being called 
to found the independence of a nation, and to consolidate 
its liberties." 

The people hailed and received him with great enthusi- 
asm, and on July 21st he was crowned King of the Bel- 
gians, with most impressive ceremonies, at Brussels. The 
Dutch, however, viewed all this with much concern, and 
at once began hostilities, thinking that the powers would 
sustain them rather than permit France to occupy Bel- 
gium. At once Dutch troops were massed for attack on 
both Brussels and Louvain. Outnumbered by the Dutch, 
the badly organized national forces of Belgium met dis- 
aster at Hasselt, and, realizing his peril, Leopold be- 
sought the French, who were at the frontier, to come to 
his assistance. Simultaneously with the assault on Lou- 

203 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

vain, therefore, the French troops arrived at Brussels. 
Great Britain now entered the fray, threatening to send a 
fleet of warships to occupy the Scheldt unless King Wil- 
liam recalled his army from Belgium. This settled the 
matter, and the Dutch withdrew. The French likewise 
returned to their own territory. Jealousy, however, was 
manifested by Austria, Prussia and Russia toward the 
new kingdom, and their refusal to receive Leopold's am- 
bassadors was calculated to encourage hope in Holland 
that the reign of the new monarch was to be limited. 

New troubles began for the Belgians, in the presenta- 
tion of the London Protocol of October 15, 1831, in conse- 
quence of a demand that the greater part of Lim- 
bourg and Luxembourg be ceded. Not only the Bel- 
gians but the Dutch opposed this demand, as well as 
the conditions of the protocol. And at once King Wil- 
liam prepared for armed resistance. Leopold immedi- 
ately after obtaining votes for the raising of the sum of 
three millions sterling for war purposes, increased the 
army to one hundred thousand men. 

Now ensued a most critical period for the little king- 
dom, but both France and England held their shields over 
It, while Leopold's marriage to the Princess Louise, eldest 
daughter of King Louis Philippe, gained for it still 
greater strength in its relations with France. 

King William, however, refused stubbornly to recog- 
204 



A WORD ABOUT THE BELGIANS 

nise the protocol, and retained possession of Antwerp, 
which he held with a garrison of five thousand soldiers. 
Antwerp Citadel being the pride of the kingdom, the Bel- 
gians, restive under the control of the powers, demanded 
that both England and France help them at once to re- 
cover it, alleging that in case this help was refused, they, 
with their hundred thousand men, were ready to cap- 
ture it themselves. So in the month of November the 
French troops, under Marechal Gerard, laid siege to the 
Antwerp stronghold, held by General Chasse, who after 
three weeks' siege capitulated, and the Dutch, rather than 
have their warships captured, burnt and sank them in the 
Scheldt. 

With the surrender of Antwerp, the French withdrew 
their army, but the Dutch sullenly refused to recognise 
the victory until the year 1839, when they withdrew from 
and dismantled the forts on the Scheldt facing Antwerp. 

Naturally the support of the French and English 
brought about a deep and lasting feeling of gratitude on 
the part of the Belgians. Louis Philippe said, " Belgium 
owes her independence and the recovery of her territory 
to the union of France and England in her cause." 

Her independence thus gained and recognised, Bel- 
gium turned her attention to the development of the 
country and its rich natural resources. The Manufac- 
tures flourished, her mines of coal and iron became fa- 

205 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

mous throughout the world, and she trod the peaceful path 
of strict neutrality among the great nations. Passing 
over the all familiar history of Waterloo, one may quote 
the saying of M. Northomb : " The Battle of Waterloo 
opened a new era for Europe, the era of representative 
government." And this new era was enjoyed by Belgium 
until the Franco-Prussian War confronted the little coun- 
try with a fresh crisis, and one fraught with danger. Al- 
though her absolute neutrality had been earnestly pro- 
claimed and presented to the powers, it was feared that 
she might be invaded and be unable to maintain her in- 
tegrity by her military force. 

Leopold promptly mobilized the army and massed it 
upon the frontier. During and after the battle of Sedan, 
a large number of both French and German soldiers 
crossed the border and were interned until the close of the 
war. . . , Once more peace descended upon the Belgians, 
for a fresh treaty prepared by England and signed by 
both France and Prussia engaged the British Govern- 
ment to declare war upon the power violating its provi- 
sions. 

After his acceptance of the Crown of Belgium, the Con- 
stitution declared the monarchy hereditary in the male 
line of the family of Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, 
which consisted of two sons and one daughter. The elder 
of the sons was born in 1835, ^nd succeeded his father 

206 



A WORD ABOUT THE BELGIANS 

as Leopold II, in 1865. The Austrian Archduchess Marie 
Henriette became his wife in 1853, and their descendants 
were one son and three daughters, none of whom is now 
living. The Salic Law prevailing in Belgium, the his- 
tory of the female descendants is not of political impor- 
tance. The only son of Leopold II dying in 1869, the 
succession passed to the brother of the King, the Count 
of Flanders, who married Mary, Princess of Hohenzol- 
lern, a sister of the King of Roumania. 

The death of their son Prince Baldwin in 1891 was held 
to be a national calamity. This left the nephew of Leo- 
pold II, Prince Albert (the present King of Belgium) , the 
heir presumptive to the throne. He married in 1900 the 
Princess Elizabeth of Bavaria; to them have been born 
three children, two boys and a girl. Both the King and 
Queen, the objects of intense devotion on the part of the 
Belgians, are very simple and democratic in their bearing 
toward the people. The Queen is a very beautiful 
woman, and a most devoted wife and mother. . . . 
Since the seat of government has been removed to Havre, 
the Queen divides her time between the little hamlet of 
La Panne, headquarters of the Belgian army, near the 
town of Fumes on the dunes of the north sea, and Lon- 
don, where the children are being cared for and educated. 
. . . May not one hope that brighter days are in store for 
this devoted and heroic King and Queen, for the once 

207 



VANISHED TOWERS OF FLANDERS 

smiling and fertile land, and for the kindly, gentle, and 
law abiding Belgian people? * 

* The author refers the reader to " The Constitution of Belgium," J. M. 
Vincent, Phila., 1898 ; " Belgium and the Belgians," C. Scudamore, London, 
1904; " History of Belgium," D. C. Boulger, London, 1900; " The Story of 
Belgium," C. Smythe, London, 1902, 



THE END 



208 



INDEX 



Albert, King of Belgium, 102, 207 
Alost, church of St. Martin's, 113, 
114 
Hotel de Ville, 111 
Antwerp, carillon of, 52 

cathedral of, 41, 44, 143 
Archers of St. Sebastian, 66 
Artists of Malines, list of the, 183- 

195 
Aymon, legend of the four sons of, 
133-136 

Baldwin Bras-de-Fer, 55. 171 
Baldwin the Ninth, Count of Flan- 
ders, 72, 121 
Battle of the Dunes, the, 101 
Battle of the Spurs, the, 120, 172 
Battle of Waterloo, the, 206 
Bayard, the horse, 133-138 
Beguinage, the, Courtrai, 121 
" " Malines, 23-24 

" Ypres, 82 
Bell-founding, process of, 45-48 
Berincx, Gregoire, 186 

Gregoire le Jeune, 186, 191 
Bethune, Robert of. Count of Flan- 
ders, 75, 79 
Biset, Charles Emmanuel, 191 

George, 191 
Bol, Jean, 188 
Bouts, Dierick, 48, 149 
Broel Towers, the, Courtrai, 119, 123 
Bruges, cathedral of, 41 

library, 171 
Brussels, cathedral of, 41 

Museum of Decorative 
Arts, 76, 149 



Burgundy, House of, 68 
Mary of, 165 

Carillons of Aivtwerp, 52 
of Bruges, 52 
" of Ghent, 52 
of Louvain, 52 
of Malines, 52 
of Tournai, 52 
Carpreau, Jean, 187 
Cathedral of Antwerp, 41 
of Bruges, 41 
of Brussels, 41 
of Ghent, 41 

of Malines, 18-19, 4i> 4~ 
of Ypres, 69, 73 
Charlemagne, 134-136 
Charles the Bold. 25, 76, 81 
Charles the Eleventh, 119 
Charles the Fifth, 18, 130, 165 
Cloth Hall, the, Ypres, 69, 72-75, 78, 

80, 8i 
Commines, Philip of, 8'6 
Cossiers, I., 24 
Coxie, Jean, 185 

Jean Michel, 185 
" Michel, 184 

Michel le Jeune, 184 
Michel the Third, 185 
" Michel the Fourth, 185 
" Raphael, 185 
Counts' Chapel, the, Courtrai, 121 
Courtrai, the Counts' Chapel, 121 

the Hall of the Magistrates, 

129 
the Town Hall, 129 
Cuyp, 36, 102 



209 



INDEX 



De Gryter^ Jean, 185 

De Homes, Jacques, 191, 193 

Deklerk, 44, 45 

De Poindre, Jacques, 1S7 

De Vos, Lambert, 188 

Douai, Hotel de Villa, 157, 160 

Douai Bible, the, 158 

Dyle, the river, 21, 26, 152 

EUe, Ferdinand, 192 

Franchoys, Luc, 189 

" Luc le Jeune, 190, 192, 

.193 
" Pierre, 190 

Franco-Prussian War, the, 206 
Fumes, Hotel de Ville, 173 

Ghent, the carillons of, 52 
Gild of St. Luke, the, 181 
Gothic architecture, styles of, 90 
Great Wars of Flanders, the, 86 

Hall of the Magistrates, the, Court- 

rai, 129 
Hals, Frans, 141, 190 
Hanseatic League, the, 69 
Hanswyk, the Tower of Our Lady of, 

Malines, 26 
Haweis, 41, 43, 49, 50 
Hemony, 42, 49 
Henry the First, 152 
Herregouts, David, 191 
Hoogenbergh, Jean, 186 
Hotel de Ville of Alost, ill 

" " " of Douai, 157, 160 

" " " of Furnes, 173 

" " " of Louvain, 147, 149 
150 

" " " of Oudenaarde, 164 

" " " of Ypres, 73 
Huet, 87, 89 

2 



Hunin, Matthieu Joseph Charles, 

" Pierre Paul Aloys 
Hugo, Victor, 52 

Ingelrams, Andre, 187 

" Corneille, 187 

Inghelbrugtorre, Courtrai, 119 
Inquisition, the Spanish, 68 

Jansenius, Cornelius, Bishop of 

Ypres, 73, 80 
Janssens, Daniel, 193 
Joilroy, Jean Barthelemy, 193 
Jordsens, 141 
Jube, at St. Martin's, Dixmude, S^, 

57-59, 62, 79 

Keldermans, 17, 18, 130 
Knights of the Golden Fleece, 36 
Knights Templar, the, 99, 101 

La Panne, 74, 207 

La Pla, Jacques, 193 

Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, King of 

Belgium, 203, 204, 205 
Leopold the Second of Belgium, 207 
Le Saive, Jean, 190, 193 
Library, the, Bruges, 43, 171 
Brussels, 43 
Louvain, 43, 49, 150 
Lion of Flanders, the, 22, 28 
Louis of Maele, 66, 67 
Louis of Nevers, 76 
Louis Philippe, 203, 205 
Louis the Eleventh, 157 
Louis the Fourteenth, 158 
Louvain, church of St. Peter, 147, 
152 
carillons of, 52 
Hotel de Ville, 149 
library, 149 
Loyola, Ignatius, 21 
10 



INDEX 



Luther, Martin, 21 

Lys, the river, 119, 120, 122-123 

Malines, carillons of, 52 

cathedral of, 18-19, 41, 42 
St. Rombauld, 17, 19, 22, 
26, 37, 44 
Margaret of Artois, 76 

" of Austria, statue of, 22 
" of Parma, 165 
" of York, 25, 76 
" the Courageous, the leg- 
end of, 150-153 
Marguerite of Flanders, 152 

" of Savoie, 18 

Mary of Burgundy, 165 
Matsys, Quentin, 149 
Memling. 85, 148, 149 
Mercier, Cardinal, Primate of Bel- 
gium, 21, 167 
Moertens, Thierry, 112 
Museum of Decorative Arts, the, 

Brussels, 76, 149 
Mysteries of the Passion, the, 175 

Nemours, Due de, 202 
Nieuwerck, Ypres, 70, 73, 77 
Notre Dame, the church of, Court- 
rai, 121 

Opdebeek, Antoine, 194 

Oudenaarde, church of St. Walburga, 
165 
H6tel de Ville, 164 
Town Hall, 17, 165 

Philip of Alsace, 119 

" of Savoie, 18 

" the Second of Spain, 85, 101 
Place de la Boucherie, 25 



Quesnoy, Jerome due. 24 



Redel, August Casimir, 193 
Rembrandt, 141 
Rubens, 113, 141, 173, 190 
Ruskin, 28, 42 

St. Martin's, cathedral of, Ypres, 73, 

77. 78. 79 
" church of, Alost, 113, 

114 
" church of, Dixmude, 

5S; 56, 57. 60 
St. Mary Bells, in Antwerp cathe- 
dral, 44 
St. Nicholas, church of. Fumes, 99, 

171 
St. Peter, church of, Louvain, 147, 

152 
St. Pierre, tower of, Ypres, 80 
St. Rombauld, Malines, chimes of, 
19, 22 
" " spire of, 17 

" " tower of, 

26-37, 44 
St. Walburga, church of, Oude- 
naarde, 165, 174-176 
St. Winoc, the abbey of, Bergues, 95 
Sainte Begga, 23, 121 
Salvator Bell, the, 20, 4S 
Scheldt, the river, 133, 204, 205 
Smeyers, Egide Joseph, 192 
" Gilles, 192 
" Jacques, 192 
Snellinck, Jean, 188 
Speytorre, the, Courtrai, 119 
Stevens, Pierre, 189 

TalUebert, d'Urbain, 79 
Thierry d'Alsace, 65, 85 
Toeput, Louis, 188 
Tournai, Town Hall, 52 
Tower of the Templars, the, Nieu- 
port, 99, 101 



211 



INDEX 



Town Hall of Brussels, 17 

" " of Courtrai, 129 

" " of Dixmude, 56 

" " of Louvain, 17 

" " of Oudenaarde, 17 

" " of Tournai, 52 

Trabukier, Guillaume, 184 

Untenhoven, Martin, 78 

Van Aken, Sebastian, 193 
Van Artevelde, family of, 36 
Philip, 66, Se 
Van Avont, Pierre, 189 

" " Rombaut, 189 
Van Battele, Baudoum, 183 

" " Gautier, 183 

" " Jean, 183 

" " Jean le Jeune, 183 

Van den Gheyn, family of, 20, 33, 42, 

44. 45. 158 
" " " Mathias, 147 
" " " Peter, 48 

Van Dyck, 133 

Van Eyck, Jean, 79 

Van Halter, Catherine, 24 

Van Ophem, Jean, 186 

Van Orley, Bernard, 184 

Van Orshagen, Jean, 183 

Van Steynemolen, Zacherie, 184 

Van Thielen, Jean Philippe, 192 



Van Valckenborgh, Luc, 188 

" " Martin, 189 

Van Yleghem, Daniel, 183 
Van Yper, Card, 80 
Vauban. 65 
Verbeek, Frangois, 186 

" Hans, 186 
Vereeke, 65, 70 
Verhaegan, P. J., 150, 153 
Verhoeven, Jean, 191 

" Martin, 191 

Verhulst, Pierre Antoine, 194 
Ver Vloet, Jean, 195 
Vinckboons, Maur, 184 
Philip, 189 

Waghemans, family of, 20 
Waterloo, the Battle of, 206 
Willems, Marc, 187 
William the First of Holland, 199, 
201, 204 

Ypres, the Beguinage, 82 

the cathedral of, 69, 72 
the Cloth Hall. 69, 73, 74, 

75, 78, 80, 81 
the Hotel de Ville, 73 

Yser, the river, 5$, 62 

Zeelstman, 19 



































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